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JihplajiRtiojLL 

Red iufiu-ates CotUn lands of the 
heirt r/iifili/v. 

YeIIo\\\ utdi<<ite^ secoTid cla.s-s 
CcMoii 7(vuf^' producinff thre^ Jiimd 
red lbs. per acre a/id lejifs. 
G?^een rtidwatejf land.f wTiwh pr-o. 
dure liMe or no Cotton . 

Tfiese colors are not intende^i ( 
as eaxLct repre.ventations of theK 
quality of the land . Far CMinv. 
pie : many civeJc iotto/ns in ffif 
part mezr^d qreen, prodz/ce some 
cotfmi, & ofili£ surface colored 
red considerable tracts- arei alien 
covered, n'itft water. 





AKDS y 

E 

TATES. 



;ni .vrnnU-rll.v.T ^R.M•?Ll■Uau So Bcebu.nn Sir. 



COTTON CULTURE 



BY 



^X 



JOSEPH B/ LYMAN, 

LATE OF LOUISIANA. 



WITH AN ADDITIONAL CHAPTER ON 

COTTON SEED AND ITS USES. 

BY 

J. R. S7.PHER. 

v'" " ' -■',■ 

i' A; / 

NEW YORK: 

ORANGE JUDD & COMPANY 

245 BROADWAY. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year IbW, oy 

ORANGE JUDD & CO. 

At the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New-York. 






PREFACE 



This Treatise is not a compilation. 

Agricultural literature is by no means so rich in valua- 
ble works on the Cotton Plant, that it is possible to select 
from existing writings the information which, however 
skillfully grouped, can make an excellent book. 

Twelve years of experience among the cotton growers 
of the Southwest have been found by the author of vastly 
more importance to the proper understanding of the whole 
subject, than all which has been written. 

Of what has been before given to the world on the sub- 
ject, I have found no matter more valuable than the letters 
of Dr. Cloud, of Alabama, who did more for the true and 
scientific culture of the plant, than all the other Southern 
writers put together. 

His views, and those of that Bayou Sara planter who 
Avrote an admirable letter to De Bow's Review on the 
Cotton-worm, have been freely quoted. Some useful 
statistics are to be found in the New American Cyclopae- 
dia, under the head of Cotton, and these, as well as other 
tables, have been studied. The writer would also express 
his obligations to Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, whose 
lecture before the Geographical Society of New York is 
rich in valuable conclusions. 

But whatever is of most worth in the pages that follow, 
is the result of personal observation, and of frequent and 
lengthy conversations with the most successful and the 
most intelligent cultivators of the great staple. 



A TREATISE ON COTTON CnLTUIffi. 

TABLE OF COIVTEIS'TS. 

PART I. 

WHERE AKD HOW THE PLANT IS RAISED. A SERIES OF 

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS AS TO THE ESTABLISHED 
ANNUAL ROUTINE IN COTTON PLANTING. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE COTTON FARM. — ITS STOCK, IMPLEMENTS, AND LAB0EER3 

The Climate for Cotton. Geographical Boundaries of the Cotton Zone. 
Soils Best Suited to Cotton Growing. Draft Animals Required by the 
Planter. Plows, Wagons, Laborers, Milk p.p. 9 — 16 

CHAPTER II. 

PREPARATION OF THE SOIL AND PLANTING. 

Time for Plowing ; Manner of Plowing. Laying-ofT the Cotton Beds. 
Time for Planting. Varieties of Seed. Errors in Keeping Seed. Im- 
mediate Preparation for and Manner of Planting. Amount of Seed Re- 
quired. Advantages of Precision in Making the Rows. The Old Mode 
of Planting. Improved Cotton Planter. Preparation of the Seed for 
Planting p.p. 16—23 

CHAPTER III. 

now THE CROP IS TO BE CULTIVATED. 

First Appearance of the Plant. "Chopping Out." Hoeing. Rapid 
Movement Required. Attention to Corn. Amount of Moisture Re- 
quired by Cotton. Lice Bred by Excess of Moisture and, at a Later 
Stage, Rust. Remedy for these Evils. Proper Shape of Plows for Cot- 
ton. The Eagle Plow or Sweep. Frequency of Going Over the Crop. 
Time of First Blooms on Cotton ; Description of Bloom ; the " Forms." 
Effects of Great Excess of Moisture, etc. Continued Heat at this 
Stage. When Plowing should be Discontinued. Summary of the Old 
Routine. Modification of this Routine. Care for the Laborer and his 
Mule. Improvement on the Old Modes. The Shanghai Plow. Sum- 
mary of the Best Mode of Planting and Cultivating the Cotton 
Crop p.p. 33—35 

4 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. V 

CHAPTER IV. 

COTTON PICKING. 

Time of Commencing. Utensils and Preparation. Picking Must be 
Done Mainly by Hand. Slow and Fust Picking ; Conveniences and En- 
couragements. Health of Field Laborers. Sorting and Trashing of the 
Cotton. Four Grades. Economy of Time and Labor in Handling the 
Crop. The Picking Season ; its Length. Task Work. Weight of Lint 
as Compared with Uugiuned Cotton p.p. 36—45 

CHAPTER V. 

GINNING, BALING, ANO MARKETING. 

Principle of the Whitney Gin ; Description of Its Parts. The Gin- 
house. Plans of First and Second Stories. The Drying Scaffold. Im- 
provements Suggested. The Old Wooden Packing-box and Screw. 
Cost of Bad Packing. Cut and Description of an Improved Press. The 
Iron Hoop. Honor and Reliability in Putting up a Crop. The Planter 
should be a Judge of the Market. Speedy and Direct Communication 
between Producer and Consumer p.p. 45 — 59 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE COTTON PLANTERS' CALENDAR. 

January. — The Gin ; the Market; Pressing. Clearing off the Fields. 
Filling up Washes and Gulches. Talcing Care of Seed Cotton. Using 
the Remainder of the Cotton Seed for Manure. 

February. — About Time to Commence Plowing. Plan and Prepare 
for Another Crop ; Cut Wood ; Haul out Manure ; Decide on Rotation 
of Crops ; " Bedding Up " for the Rows. Oats. 

Ifarch-^—ThQ Garden ; Kelons ; Plantation Roads ; Circle Ditching 
and Circle Plowing ; Beginning to Plant. 

April. — Careful Planting; First Going Over; the Shanghai Plow; 
Cutting Away to a Stand. 

May. — Another Thorough Working ; Best Mode of Plowing between 
Cottou Rows ; the Sweep ; Importance of Good Plowing. 

June. — Cultivation Vai'ies Somewhat with the Season and Moisture ; 
Caring for the Well-being of Man and Beast in the Field. 

July. — Last Working in Advanced Crop ; Fodder Pulling ; Drink for 
Field Hands ; Effect of Fodder Pulling upon the Grain. 

August. — Picking at Hand; Advance of the Enemies of Cotton ; How 
to Fight the Army-worm ; the Caterpillar or Cotton-moth ; How to De- 
stroy them. 

Se2ytemher.—T\ic Picking to be Pushed ; Care for the Hands ; Coffee iu 
the Morning. 

October. — Keeping up the Spirits ; Sorting Cotton ; the Trasher. 



VI COTTON CULTUKE. 

Nmeniber.—Kxo'A Night Work ; Giauing ; Cotton Shonlcl Lie for a 
Time in the Seed. 

Decetnher. — Gathering of other Crops ; Hauling Cotton to Market ; 
Clearing the Fields for the following Crop p. p. 59—68 



PAET II. 

CHAPTER I. 

QUALITT, EXTENT, AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COTTON LANDS 
OF IfORTH AMERICA. 

Boundaries of the Cotton Belt. Which are the Cotton States ? Texas : 
Extent and Character of its Cotton Lands ; Soil and Climate described ; 
Valley of the Brazos ; Black Prairies ; Valleys of other Rivers in Texas. 
Louisiana and Arkansas : their Cotton Fields ; the Washita Lands ; 
Cotton South of Red River, and North of the Arkansas. Mississippi : 
Its Alluvial Lauds ; Cotton Planting in the Hills ; the Tombigbee Lands. 
Alabama : Its Alluvial and Black Caue Brake Lands ; Extent and Fertil- 
ity of its Richest Fields. Georgia : its Three Divisions, Southern, Mid- 
dle, and Northern ; Climate and Soil of each ; the Facilities for Cotton 
Growing. South Carolina: Three General Classes of Lands as in 
Georgia ; the Best Cotton Lands ; Inferior Lands. North Carolina and 
Tennessee : the Limited Region in these States where Cotton is Grown ; 
Cotton north of 38° ; Principal Dates in a Cotton Crop ; Effect of Short- 
ening the Season ; the Experiment of 1863 p.p. 69—84 

CHAPTER II. 

ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF COTTON. 

The Cotton-louse and How to Get Rid of it. The Cut-worm; How to 
Prevent his Ravages. The Cotton-moth or Caterpillar; its Fearful Rav- 
ages Described. Full Account of, and Description of the Insect in its Dif- 
ferent Forms ; two Modes of Attacking it. Effect of Rotation of Crops ; 
Manner in which it Destroys itself; Conclusions with Regard to it. The 
Army -worm ; Compared with the Caterpillar ; How to Arrest its March ; 
Army-worm Described. Boll-worm; Peculiarities of this Insect ; the 
Moth described ; Manner and Place of Laying Eggs ; Appearance of the 
Worm ; Mischief it Produces ; How to Get Rid of it ; Modes of extermi- 
nating the Moth. Diseases of Cotton : Rust ; What Produces it; Sore 
Shin ; Rot, or Gangrene. Blue Cotton p.p. 84 — 100 

CHAPTER III. 

IMPROVED AND SCIENTIFIC CULTURE OF COTTON. 

Reasons for the unskillful Manner in which Cotton has generally been 
Raised. The Preservation and Restoration of Cotton Lands Depends on 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. VH 

Two Practices : Circle Plowing and Ditching, and Manuring. The 
Amount to which Uplands in Cotton Deteriorate by Washing. The 
First Practice of Circle Plowing. Circle Ditcliing ; Detailed Instruc- 
tions. Fertilizing Properties Removed from the Soil by Cotton. Anal- 
ysis of the Lint and of the Seed. Fertilizers which Best Restore the 
Elements Abstracted. Best Manvire for Cotton Lauds : Guano. Cotton 
Should not be Manured in the Drill. Dr. Cloud and his Improved Cul- 
ture. Reasons for not Maniiring in the Hill. "High Farming" in 
Connection with Cottou ; what it Consists in. The proper Rotation of 
Crops on a Cottou Farm. Most Suitable Arrangements for Making 
Large Amounts of Manure ; Best Method of Applying it. Mode of Cul- 
tivation that Should Follow ; the Results. Cotton Seed Better as a Ma- 
nure the Second Year than the First. The Length of Time for which this 
High Manuring is Felt. Contrast between "High" and "Low Farm- 
ing" in Cotton. Improvement of the Seed by the Use of Fertilizers ; 
Gypsum to be Applied with Guano p.p. 100—119 

CHAPTER IV. 

VARIOUS KINDS OF COTTON CULTIVATED IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Upland and Sea Island. Mexican Seed, how Introduced. Petit Gulf 
Seed, and Why so Called. Prices at which Improved Varieties Sell. 
Methods of Improving any Seed; Something Depends on Locality. Va- 
rious Seeds Developed from the Mexican and Petit Gulf. Mr. Phillips 
on the Varieties of Cotton Seed. Manner in which Choice Varieties De- 
teriorate ; "Banana" and "Mastodon" instanced; Five Conclusions 
on the Subject. Sea Island Cottou ; its Average Yield and Price. Sea 
Island Cotton described ; Time when it Began to be Cultivated ; Results 
of an Analysis of Sea Island Cotton and Soil ; how Cultivated; Method 
of Ginning and Preparing for Market. Mr. Chichester's Invention. The 
Largest Crop of Sea Island. Other Statistics p.p. 119—133 

CHAPTER V. 

now TO REALIZE THE MOST FROM A CROP; SUGGESTIONS AS TO 
THE UNION OF THE GROWING OF COTTON WITH ITS MANU- 
FACTURE INTO YARNS AND FABRICS. 

No probability that the South will ever Manufacture All the Cotton 
she Grows. A Plan Suggested for Manufacturing : One Large, Central 
Factory in every Town or Township ; Machinery Driven by Steam ; 
Facilities for Ginning, Packing, and Manufacturing Enough Cloth for 
that Community. Ground Plan of such Factory with Oil-mill Attached ; 
the Bagging also to be Made there from the Trashy Cotton. Advantages 
of the Plan Proposed. Perfection of Ginning and Baling. Modifica- 
tions of the Proposed Plan for DifFerent Localities. Associated Capital 
Compared with Individual Euterprise. The Plan Proposed Adapted to 
the Small Producer. Question of Operatives p.p. 133 — 141 



VIII COTTON CULTURE. 

CHAPTER VI. 

OF THE VAJLTJE Or COTTON AS A PLANT, AND THE USES TO WHICH 
IT MAT BE APPLIED. 

Cheapness of Cotton as au Article of Clothing. Cotton for Ropes ; 
as a Material for Beds ; as a Material for Bed-Covers ; Cotton Blankets. 
The Comforts that Two Bales of Cotton may be Made to Bring into One 
Family. The Possible Employment of Cotton as a Building Material. 
Cotton-stalli Hemp. Cotton Seed as Food for Animals ; as Manure. A 

Medicine from the Root of the Cotton Plant p.p. 141 — 149 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE OF COTTON ; ITS HISTORY AND STATISTICS. 

Cotton Previous to the Present Century ; no Mention of it in the 
Earliest Writings. What Herodotus Says. Cotton Introduced from In- 
dia to Rome. Hindoo Mode of Weaving ; Wonderful Delicacy of some 
of their Fabrics. Difficulty of Producing Large Amounts of Cotton in 
India. Cotton in Egypt and Africa. Early Notices of Cotton in the 
New World. Its Culture in the West Indies and Brazil. First Culture 
in the United States. Impetus given by the Invention of the Gin. An 
Account of the Manner in which Eli Whitney Made the Discovery ; the 
Importance of his Invention. Statistical Tables as to Increase, Amount, 
Price, and Total Value of the Various Cotton Crops of the United States. 
Five Conclusions with Respect to the Past and the Future of Cotton as 
Drawn from a Study of the Tables. Views Expressed in the London 
Economist. Question of Cotton Supply during the War. ..pp. 149 — 164 
CHAPTER VIII. 

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS TO VARIOUS CLASSES OF PERSONS WHO 
PROPOSE TO ENGAGE IN COTTON GROWING. 

Modes of Producing Cotton in the Future ; Different Classes likely to 
be Engaged in it. Suggestions to the Large Capitalist and Joint Stock 
Companies as to the Best Cotton Lands ; the Advantages and DisadA'an- 
tages of Various Sections Examined. The Cotton Fields of Alabama, 
Texas, and of the Mississippi Valley Considered. Attractions of the 
Upland Cotton Fields ; their Desirableness for the Farmer. Middle 
Tennessee Considered. The Northern parts of Alabama and Georgia. 
North-western Arkansas. Northern Texas. The Poor Immigrant will 
Go where he can Get the Highest Wages ; with Thrift he can soon Rise 
above a Hireling; Three Simple Rules for Keeping his Health. Con- 
clusion ; p.p. 164— -179 

CHAPTER IX. 

COTTON SEED OIL. COTTON SEED CAKE. 

The Discovery of Oil in Cotton Seed. Experiments. Process of 
Manufacture of Oil. Difficulties to be Overcome. Seed Hullcrs. Ma- 
chinery Required to Express Oil. How Oil is Expressed. How Refined. 
Its Uses. Cotton Seed Cake. Its Value in Stock-feeding. As a Fertil- 
izer. Ashes of the Hulls p.p. 180—190 



A TREATISE ON COTTON CULTURE. 



PART I. 

WHEKE AND HOW THE PLANT IS RAISED.— A SERIES 

OF PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS AS TO THE ESTABLISHED 

ANNUAL ROUTINE IN COTTON PLANTING. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE COTTON FARM; ITS STOCK, IMPLEMENTS AND 
LABORERS. 

Two general considerations must be regarded in ap- 
proaching the business of cotton producing ; one that of 
climate, the other of the soil. 

The natural demands of the plants are for a tropical or 
semi-tropical climate that aifords seven or eight months 
entirely secure from frosts. In the United States cotton 
is produced in all the belt that reaches from 40° north 
latitude to the Gulf of Mexico. A line drawn westAvard 
from Philadelphia divides that part of the country where 
cotton will, in various degrees, reward the labor of culti- 
vation from those where its production is hopeless. 

But in the upi>er part of that belt, between 36° and 40°, 
it is an exotic, more than half its productive power being 
9 1* 



10 COTTON CULTURE. 

entirely cut OAvay by a damp and chilly April, and a frosty 
October. The superiority of the lands of the Southern 
States of North America is due less to soil than to climate. 
In the relations of the mountains to the sea and of the 
Great Valley to the Gulf, into wbich its waters pour, is 
to be found the true secret of the rapid ascent of cotton 
to a great commercial and political power. This was very 
aptly stated by a recent lecturer before the American 
Geographical Society in terms substantially as follows : 

" The pecuhar climate of the Cotton States I understand 
to be produced by the chain of mountains which intersects 
our country, the loAver spurs of the Alleghany range 
passing oif westward in the hills of northern Georgia, Ala- 
bama, and Mississippi. 

" On these the moisture brought inland by the sea- 
breezes from the Gulf and Gulf-stream is condensed, and 
falls in many showers, but not often in long storms ; these 
showers occur frequently in spring, but rarely in midsum- 
mer and autumn, thus giving dry seasons for gathering the 
crop. After it has attained a vigorous growth, the cotton 
plant may defy the droutl), for by means of a long tap- 
root it lives upon the moisture accumulated beneath the 
surface during the winter and spring rains." 

A line drawn from Raleigh westward through Nashville, 
and continued into the northern j^art of Arkansas has, 
until of late, been regarded as the true northern limit of 
the cotton belt, south of which it is, even at ten cents a 
pound, the most valuable crop that can be produced. 

There are some good cotton lands in North Carolina, 
but that State has never been a large producer of the staple. 
Many of its river bottoms are too wet and heavy, and most 
of its uplands are too poor. 

West of the mountains very little has ever been grown 
in the valleys of the upper Tennessee. But descending that 
tortuous stream, and passing west of Chattanooga into 
northern Alabama and western Tennessee, v.'C come into 



COTTON CULTURE. 11 

a region quite fovorable to its growth, and in the section 
lying between the Tennessee and Cumberland, and drained 
by the Duck and Elk rivei-s, it has, in about half the 
counties, been for many years the staple. 

In the northern part of those valleys, below Fort Donel- 
son, its production gives place to tobacco. With the 
exception of these parts of Tennessee, and the south-eastern 
half of Arkansas, the Cotton States all touch the ocean or 
the Gulf. The thirty-second degree, or a line drawn across 
the Gulf States through Montgomery and Jackson, is the 
centre of the cotton belt. For a hundred miles each side 
of that parallel, north and south, and especially in the lands 
bordering on the lower half of all the affluents of the Gulf 
and the southern tributaries of the Mississippi, cotton is 
produced to an extent, and of a quality surpassed by no 
other equal area of the earth's surface. This is its natural 
home ; here is its chosen domain. For cotton is essentially 
a child of the sun. It does uot rejoice in copious moisture, 
and can thrive and come to perfection on less rain than any 
plant cultivated on the continent. 

There are three classes of soil well suited to cotton. 
First, the soft argillaceous limestone, or what is called the 
rotten limestone and red lands of Georgia, South Carolina, 
parts of Alabama and Mississippi, and a small part of 
Texas. 

This description of soil is soft, fine and friable, easily 
washed away, nearly, and in many parts entirely free from 
stones. The descents to streams are steep, but, in general, 
such soil is spread over an undulating surface, about half 
of which should be protected from washing by the winter 
rains with a system of circle ditching or circle ploughing. 
The growth on such lands is beech, magnolia, white and 
red oak, and some pine on the swells, with gum and enor- 
mous poplars on the creek bottoms. From 1840 to 1850 
probably two-thirds or three-fourths of all the cotton pro- 
duced grew on land of this description. For the ten years 



12 COTTOISr CULTURE. 

preceding the war, tliere was a strong tendency among all 
the cotton planters to transfer their labor to alluvial 
lands. 

The second class of cotton soils are the rich black cane- 
brake lands of middle Alabama and the black rolling 
prairies of Texas. These are generally called the black 
lands, and cannot be surpassed by any alluvions for the 
certainty with which they produce crops, their freedom 
from destructive vermin, the admirable roll of the surface 
just sufficient for drainage, and the completeness w^ith 
which every square yard of the soil may be turned under 
the plow. In winter, the roads through this class of 
lands become immense black mortar beds, where a loaded 
wagon sinks nearly to the axle, and six mules can hardly 
pull four bales, but in spring these formidable sloughs 
harden, and become polished under the wheel, so as to 
afford for eight months of the year a road as firm, smooth, 
and agreeable as it is horrible during the remaining four. 

Another discount on these regions is the badness of the 
water. In general, however, such lands are considered 
worth twice as much as the former or red hill countries. 
In 1860 the price of the former ranged from ten to thirty 
dollars per acre, according to the degree to which they 
were washed or exhausted, nearness to markets and towns, 
excellence of buildings, and state of fences. 

The black lands of middle Alabama, between the Tom- 
bigbee and the Alabama rivers, were seldom sold at less 
than fifty dollars, and the price ranged from that to one 
liundred. Now, (1867,) large surfaces are in market at 
r.bout half the price they commanded before the war. 

The alluvions or river bottoms are the third and most 
raluable class of cotton lands. Like river bottoms every- 
?vhere, the valleys of the Santee, the Chattahoochee, the 
A.labama and Tombigbee, the Pearl, and, beyond all, the 
rast areas drained by the Mississippi and its lower tribut- 
aries have very little inclination, and that little is gener- 



COITON CULTURE. 13 

ally away from the bank rather than towards the stream. 
But the soil is admirably adapted to cotton and the mader- 
drain is such as to compensate for the flatness. Successive 
overflows have deposited an exhaustless bed of vegetable 
mould, mixed with fine sand and wash from the hills, 
through which the falling rains easily pass to a porous sub- 
soil. 

In dry seasons, a copious dew, which is rapidly evapo- 
rated by the hot morning sun, drenches the plants. The low 
lands are covered by a heavy growth of gum, magnolia, 
poplar and cypress, wdth, in many places, a thick under- 
gi'owth of cane. The labor of clearing, and the vegetable 
miasms of swamp lands, render them less desirable for per- 
manent residence than the two classes above described, but 
tbeir exhaustless fertility, and the ease with which great 
crops can be marketed, the steamboat in thousands of cases 
coming within a few hundred yards of the gin house, can 
but form a very strong attraction to every enterprizing 
cultivator. In 1860, the general price of bottom lands, 
cleared, cultivated, and safe from overflow, was one 
hundred dollars per acre. 

Suppose now a person has a capital that enables 
him to possess and cultivate a cotton farm of two hundred 
acres, about half of which he proposes to put in cotton, 
the remainder being devoted to corn, vegetable garden, 
pasture, and woodland. What stock and implements, and 
what number of laborers should he have ? 

Of di-aft animals, his principal demand is for mules or 
horses. Oxen are too slow and heavy for the business, 
unless it be in the fall, in hauling long distances to market 
or a shipping point. It is desirable also that his mules be 
of medium size, and remarkable for a fast xoalk above 
every other quality. The cultivation of cotton requires 
rapid movement rather than strength. Except in opening 
heavy timbered land, weight of bone, either in animals or 
laborers, is unnecessary and frequently objectionable. 



14 - COTTON- CULTURE. 

Moderate sized mules, rather long-legged, hardy, and not 
great eaters, are the best on a plantation. 

On account of their greater freedom of movement, horses 
are a little superior to mules, but they are more apt to 
break down in the long hot days of June and July, when 
tliey must be constantly in the traces. 

A mule to every ten acres in cotton is no more than a 
proper allowance. On the place supposed, ten mules is the 
complement. Of plows there will be required two kinds, 
one for breaking up and forming the beds, the other for 
subsequent cultivation. Heavy plowing is seldom called 
for on a cotton farm, and as an anomaly in agriculture, 
deep plowing between the rows has been found positively 
injurious. The reason is this : deep cultivation on many 
soils tends to develop a rank growth of the plant, and to 
retard the early opening of bolls ; and cotton can be suc- 
cessfully grown only by a treatment that pushes the plant 
to an early maturity. For preparing the land, four or five 
large plows will be required. These should be rather broad 
than deep, with the moulding board well rolled over. 

Eight or more small plows will be used in -the cultiva- 
tion. By small plovvs is meant those which make a light 
furrow, and their form will be discussed in a following 
chapter. Ten hoes will be needed, and three or four small 
light harrows. 

Arrangements for harvesting the crop and hauling to 
market vary so much with the distances from the giu 
house and the shipping point, that no directions can be 
given that will be of universal application. The planter 
of one hundred acres may need no high box wagons for 
bringing in seed cotton from the field, and his gin house 
may be so near a stream that the bales can be rolled 
directly from the shed to the deck of a steamer. Under 
advantageous circumstances, a single four-Avheeled wagon 
will sufiicc for the hauling of a place such as wc suppose. 



COTTON CULTURE. 15 

But in the great majority of situations at least two large 
wagons will be found necessary. 

A gin house with machinery for grinding corn is almost 
a prime necessity. But this may be erected in the interval 
between laying aside the crop and the picking season. 
August is not generally a very busy month on a cotton 
farm. 

As to the laborers on a place of the size supposed, ten 
hands is the average; one hand to ten acres in cotton. 
Unless the surface is uncommonly rough, and the season 
unfavorable, a good hand can take proper care of ten acres 
in cotton, and five in corn, besides having some time in the 
garden. But in the j^ckuig season, it is very desirable to 
put two or three more hands into the field. If your land 
is a rich bottom, it may produce six hundred pounds, or a 
bale and a half of ginned cotton to the acre, and it is a 
very smart picker that can get out fifteen bales in a season. 
Ten bales to the liand is always good work. In employing 
laborers, regard should be had chiefly to their capacity as 
cotton pickers, and here the diiference is astonishing. Two 
men will Avork together all the year, a match for each otiier 
in chopping, splitting rails, plowing, lioeing and harvesting 
corn, yet in September, when they go into the cotton field 
with sacks on their shoulders, one will bring out two hun- 
dred pounds, and the other one hundred. One is naturally 
quick in his m.otions, and the other, though a faithful 
laborer and equally assiduous, cannot " get the knack of 
it," and though, by the stimulus of extra wages, he may 
come up to a hundred and fifty, and in the best picking to 
two hundred, he will never overtake his comrade. 

In this respect, women are better than men ; as a rule 
they make the best pickers. .The work is light, though 
monotonous. The most of cotton is from three to four 
feet high, and many bolls are but a few inches from the 
ground, hence a tall person works at a disadvantage. A 
man about five feet six inches, or five feet eight inches, 



16 COTTON CULTUEE. 

compactly built, is likely to be the most valuable on a 
cotton farm, because he will prove a faster picker than an 
athletic man of brawny frame and large muscles. 

It is very desirable also to hire laborers that are accus- 
tomed to cotton, and particularly such as are skillful with 
the plow. A man that understands circle plowing, on a 
hill place, that can carry his scooter, his sweep, or his 
cultivator within two inches of a row of young plants, yet 
never break^or uproot one, and who can pick rapidly in 
the fall, is worth a hundred dollars a year more than one 
who understands nothing but corn or wheat and tobacco, 
though the latter may be the more able bodied man of the 
two. 

Care should be taken to have an abundance of milk. 
No drink is so grateful to the heated laborer, who passes 
the whole day from dawn to sunset between the rows, as 
buttermilk. The curd it contains is nourishing, and the 
acid cooling. Milk in every form in which it can be taken, 
is admirably suited to the farm laborer, and in stocking a 
cotton farm, a cow to every three or four persons should be 
provided. 



CHAPTER II. 

PREPARATION OF THE SOIL AND PLANTING. 

The plows should be started just as early in the spring 
as the season will permit. In the latter part of February, 
the ground in the hill country and red lands will often be 
found dry enough. The same is true of the bottom lands 
in the latitude of Vicksburg, and in the southern counties 
of South Carolina and Georgia. In general, it may be said 
that the direct preparation for a crop commences with 
February. The first plowing depends somewhat upon the 



COTTON CULTURE. 17 

crop of the previous year. If the breadth was planted in 
cotton, all that is necessary is to keep a hand or two in ad- 
vance of the plow, with hoes or clubs, to break down the 
old cotton stalks, or pull them up by the roots, and throw 
them into piles for burning. If the growth is not very 
rank they had better be plowed in, but in rich bottoms, 
where it sometimes attains the height of six or eight feet, 
the large branching stalks are unmanageable, and had 
better be burned. Where cotton was the previous crop, 
aud no change in the width of the rows is desirable, run 
a small furrow between the ridges, then let the large plow 
pass on the middle of the slope of each row or ridge, and 
throw furrows from each side that will lap, so that what 
was a " middle " last year shall be a row this year, and 
vice versa. Where the previous crop was corn, and it be- 
comes necessary to change the width of the rows, and 
where the land has been lying out, and is covered with 
tall weeds and sedge grass, a different course is to be pur- 
sued. The rows or beds are laid off by running shallow 
furrows at the proper distances apart. These distances are 
to be determined by the nature of the soil, say five and a 
half or six feet, and sometimes seven on very strong bot- 
tom lands, and four or four and a half on hght lands. A 
good plan on stubble, corn, or fallow land, is to lay off the 
rows with a scooter, (a small plow without mould-boards, 
making a shallow furrow,) enlarge the furrow with a 
shovel-plow, then drag all the weeds, stubble and trash 
into these furrows, and cover in by throwing two furrows 
together upon this trench with a two horse plow. Many 
careless cultivators simply lap two furrows together, leav- 
ing six or eight inches of unbroken soil beneath. If good 
crops are thus raised, and it quite often happens that they 
are, it is due to the exuberance of a virgin soil, which can 
make amends for almost any neglect in cultivation. All 
the writers, and all planters, who have given the results 
of their experience, agree in saying that cotton requires a 



18 COTTOX CULTUKE. 

soft, deep bed. The most thorough cultivation would seem 
to require that the plowing should be continued until all 
the space between the rows, or the " middles," as they are 
called, are plowed or "broken out," in cotton pai'lance, 
by throwing iip the soil upon the beds on each side. But 
the prevalent custom has been not to " break out " these 
" middles " at the first plowing, but to do it afterwards in 
tlie covn-se of cultivating the crojD. On lands that have 
been thoroughly cultivated, this omission is probably im- 
material. At any rate, tbe very best of crops are produced 
year after year by this luethod. 

After this first plowing, the ridges or beds should remain 
a month or so, that the soil may be settled by the spring 
rains. Planting commences about the first of April, a 
week or two earlier, say by the fifteenth or twentieth of 
March, on dry lands, on the loAver margin of the cotton 
belt, and may be delayed as late as the tenth or twentieth 
of April, in the latitude of I^ashville. But any delay after 
the first of April must abridge that much from the cotton 
picking season, for four or four and a half months must be 
allowed for the growth of the cotton plant. Cotton that 
is well up on the first of April, will, in a flivorable season, 
begin to open early in August, so that by the fifteenth a 
picker can come out of the rows with fifty pounds a day. 
Yet if the seed is put in the ground too soon, and a long 
cold rain follows, it is, like corn, liable to rot, and the 
plants, when they appear, will have a stunted and yellow 
look. 

The varieties of cotton, and the difierent kinds of seed, 
whose respective merits are discussed among jjlanters, are 
fully treated of in a subsequent chapter. 

The two grand divisions of cotton in the United States 
ai*e into Sea Island and Upland. The seed of the former 
is black and smooth, of the latter dark yellowish-green, and 
covered with a fine down. Botanists call the former " tree 
cotton" and the latter "shrub cotton." The variety of 



COTTON CULTURE. 19 

the shrub cotton most known in this country, is the West 
Indian, and the seed used on a great majority of the plan- 
tations is the Mexican or Petit Gulf. 

With a beginner in this branch of agriculture, the variety 
of Mexican seed which he uses is of much less importance 
than its age and the condition in which he finds it. Seed 
that has stood through the winter rains in a great pile near 
tlie gin house, as was the practice before the war on most 
plantations, has been heated by fermentation, and its 
germinating power destroyed. A very large number of 
planting enterprizes were dampened by irretrievable delay 
in the springs of 1865 and 18G6 from the difficulty of ob- 
taining good seed. That first planted filled to sprout, 
was plowed up, and other seed planted in the middle and 
last of April, and often as late as the middle of May. A 
month of invaluable time was thus consumed, and to com- 
plete the mischief, the second planting was frequently no 
more fortunate than the first. There is nothing in the 
nature of the plant that should make seed two or more 
years old worthless, except the increasing probabiUty that 
in keeping it for this length of time, it has become heated. 

Seed that has been kept a year or two, and well taken 
care of, will ensure a more vigorous stand of plants as 
the defective seeds perish in keeping over. 

If the beds or ridges have been thrown up for some 
time, and the surface baked by heavy rains, the soil should 
be loosened by running a light harrow on the top of the 
bed. The harrow should have a handle, so that the laborer 
can walk behind, and keep it on the top of the ridge. A 
convenient and cheap arrangement for this purpose is made 
by bending a hickory pole an inch and a half in diameter, 
and six feet long, in the form of a big ox-bow, and inserting 
the ends a little behind the middle of each shaft or branch 
of the common V-shaped harrow. 

The harroAV is followed by some instrument for making 
a shallow but very straight furrow for the seeds. Some 



20 COTTON CULTURE. 

planters are so impressed with the importance of having 
the seed farrow straight, that they send a good hoe hand 
to draAV a line with the edge of his blade. Where the beds 
are laid off in right lines, as is the case on level and slightly- 
rolling lands, a good instrument can be extemporized by 
inserting a blnnt wooden tooth, three inches long, in a 
stick, three inches in diameter, at intervals of four feet, if 
that is the distance of rows determined upon, as re- 
presented in Fig. 1. 



■ -i_r- 



-2^ 



Fig 1. 



Shafts are inserted by which the mule is attached, and 
a big hickory bow for handling it, as in the harrow. Where 
the beds are curved, as is the practice in land that washes 
easily, a contrivance of this sort would be useless, and a 
light furrow is run with a small plow. 

Probably the corn planter in common use at the West 
might be adjusted so as to work well with cotton seed. 
The down or beard on the cotton seeds makes them wad 
together in little clumps or bunches, so they will not fall 
regularly, one at a time, like the polished and uniform 
kernels of corn. 

Thirty pounds of seed will plant an acre. Less will do 
it if confidence can be felt in their soundness, and if pains 
are taken to drop the seeds one at a time, at intervals oi 
from two to five inches. Some of the South Carolina 
planters use a triangular log, three feet long, armed at the 
front with a bit of iron, (a small horse-shoe will answer,) 
which they drag along the middle of the bed, keeping the 
sharp edge doAv^n, so as to make a narrow, smooth trench 



COTTON" CULTURE. 21 

for the seeds, and thus ensitre a straight Hne of young 
plants. Any person of ingenuity can think of some con- 
trivance by which this may be effected, and certainly no 
part of cotton planting will pay better than attention at 
this point. Remember that for three months your plows, 
scrapers, or cultivators, are to be kept running backwards 
and forwards between these cotton rows, and, if the line of 
plants is straight and even, the coulter or the outside tooth 
of the cultivator can be carried so close to the jDlants as 
almost to supersede the use of the hoe. Experience has 
shown that a hand can tend an acre or two acres more, 
where the planting was done with care and the line of 
young i^lants is uniform and even, than where the planting 
was careless. One great reason why little attention was 
ever paid to the best and neatest modes of getting a crop 
into the ground, was the universal feeling that the force of 
laborers necessary to pick a crop could easily plant and 
cultivate one. This may be true, but it affords no apology 
for rude and careless work. If eight plow and hoe hands 
can raise as much cotton as twelve can pick, it only shows 
that a skillful planter can keep four hands at making im- 
provements, raising vegetables, and looking after stock 
during the months of April, May, June, and July, while 
his less thoughtful neighbor has every hand in the cotton 
field. Economy of labor always and everywhere pays. 

The following is the old established mode of planting, 
practiced on millions of acres annually. In the warm days 
of the latter part of March, the seed cotton was hauled to 
the fields, and dropped in piles of three or four bushels, at 
convenient distances. A harrow passed along on the top 
of the bed, followed by a light plow, and behind came a 
boy or a woman, generally the latter, with an apron full 
of seed, Avliich was refilled, as often as empty, from the 
nearest heap. These were dashed by handfuls into the 
furrow with a quick downward jerk or fling of the right 
hand, the left meanwhile holding the apron. The seeds 



22 COTTON CULTURE. 

were covered sometimes hj a harrow, and sometimes by a 
board fastened to the lower part of a light plow. This 
board shonld be made of some hard wood, as oak or gvim, 
an inch or an inch and a half thick, about eight inches 
broad, and thirty inches long, beveled on the lower edge, 
so as to be sharp, and cut away in a curve, so as to fit the 
ridge. This wooden scraper and coverer, when drawn over 
the row, covers the seed nicely, leaves a moderate eleva- 
tion in the middle, and dresses the whole surface of the bed 
neatly for the space of a foot or more on each side of the 
drill. 

Now what we want is an improved cotton planter, having 
a few harrow teeth in front, which, with one hand and 
one or two horses, will go over the beds — a reliable and 
even working arrangement for dropping the seed in drills ; 
and last, the scraper or coverer described above. There 
is no reason why the whole operation should not be jjer- 
formed by one implement. Ten acres can thus be planted 
in one day by one team ; whereas in the old way it takes 
a gang of four laborers and three mules to go over the 
same ground. 

In the northern parts of the cotton region, where cold 
spring rains often delay the planting till the last of April, 
or the first of May, it is desirable to roll the seed in a fer- 
tihzer that will hasten the gemnination. A compound of 
two parts of ashes to one of common salt is recommended 
by Dr. Cloud, a very successful planter in Alabama. Others 
soak first in salt dissolved in liquid stable manure, and, 
when damp, roll in plaster. The latter mode is preferable, 
as the plaster separates the seeds which otherwise tend to 
mat together, and when the dropping is by hand and care- 
fully done, the white balls are easily to be seen, and can 
be laid more readily in the bottom of the seed furrow. 

Cotton needs only a light covering ; not more than peas. 
An inch is enough, and on damp, clayey soils, too much. 
It will sometimes happen that a heavy rain, followed by 



COTTON CULTURK 23 

a hot sun, will fall upon the field just after the planting 
is concluded. Unless the soil is quite sandy, the surface 
may bake in a firm crust over the seeds, and delay their 
sprouting. lu this case it is a good plan to pass lightly 
over the beds with a harrow, taldng care to draw up the 
teeth so as only to scratch the surface and crumble this 
crust. This is more important iu swamp land than on the 
hills. 



CHAPTER III. 

HOW THE CROP IS TO BE CULTIVATED 

In ten days or two weeks from the time the seed was 
laid in its narrow bed, the planter, walking over his cotton 
field, may expect to see a row of tiny leaflets just bursting 
out of the moist earth. If the interval has been uncom- 
monly wet and cold, anxiety is mingled with his hopes, 
for so many of the seeds may have rotted as to give him 
only an uneven and ragged looking stand. The question 
of replanting must be decided in a day or two, for time is 
now precious, and every week lost at this end of the season 
is just so much subtracted from the length of the picking 
season. If he has planted thick, and the stand, in most 
places, is a fair one, the chilled seeds in the "damper soils 
may yet come out and do well. He first sees two leaflets, 
and in about three days the third appears. Cotton has 
this advantage over many other crops, that it has not the 
least resemblance to any of the weeds which infest the 
field, so the most careless glance will decide as to whether 
a particular sprout is cotton or not. As soon as the third 
leaf is fairly developed, the cultivation begins, and here, 
at the very outset, the difference between careful and 
slovenly planting of the seed will appear. Where tho 



24 COTTON CULTURE, 

seeds are dashed carelessly into a wide and somewhat irreg- 
ular furrow, the line of plants will be correspondingly- 
irregular. If, on the other hand, the furrow or drill Avas 
small and sharply defined, and the seeds laid neatly at the 
drill, and that drill quite straight, the work of thinning 
out and cutting away to a stand will be very much easier. 
Of course, the first thing to be done, where the sprouts are 
very thick, is to cut away the superfluous j^lants, and con- 
centrate all the fertilizing powers of the soil upon the most 
thrifty specimens. The usual practice is to "run aroimd 
the stand," as it is called, that is, to carry a small furrow 
close up to the crest of the bed on each side, cutting away 
and covering the grass and superfluous plants. Here very 
much dejiends upon the skill of the plowman. By keep- 
ing a firm grasj) upon the handles, and a close rein on the 
mule, a good plowman will carry his coulter within two 
inches of the row of little plants, yet never disturb them, 
while an inexperienced hand will run a furrow that is 
sometimes a foot from the row, and sometimes throws a 
pile of dirt upon the plants and buries them. Where the 
plowing is well done, the thinning out, or " chopping out," 
as it is called, can be done rapidly. The hoe-gang pass 
along, and break up the line of young plants by " choi^ping 
out" a gap of, say a foot or more, thus leaving the stand 
in clumps of three or four together, at intervals of from 
twelve to twenty or thirty inches according to the exuber- 
ance of the soil. 

When the plants have sprouted in great uniformity, this 
operation is almost wholly mechanical, and can be done 
very fast ; but where the stand is irregular, considerable 
judgment must be constantly exercised in sparing only the 
most thrifty plants, and such as are aaost exactly in line. 
As a rule, it does not i^ay to be very particular this time 
over the crojD. Let the hoes pass on rapidly, killing the 
grass that is nearest the plants, and calculating to get over 
the field in a week, if the weather is fair. 



COTTON" CULTURE. 25 

It may Ibe here remarked that rapid movement, and a 
handhng which is brisk, rather than dainty and particular, 
is the best on most soils. It will not do to linger. While 
you are bestowing abundant care upon one side of your 
field, the other side may suffer a set-back from which it 
will never entirely recover. It is now the first of May, 
and you have been once over your crop, but there is no 
time for pausing. "While the hoe-gang are in their last 
rows, let the plows go right back to the side where the 
plantmg began, and start in for another working. This 
time the dirt must be thrown up from the middles toward 
the plants, yet not so as to choke them or bury the roots 
too deeply. Let the hoes follow, cutting away all the 
plants but two, the most thrifty of each climip, and throw- 
ing a little soft, fresh earth around those that stand, and 
destroying all the grass and weeds. This working should 
be careful, the most so, in fact, of any which the croj) re- 
ceives. Very much, however, depends upon the season. 
If, just at this time, say from the first to the twentieth of 
May, there are frequent rains, followed by sultry weather, 
the grass will grow apace, and the planter must use his 
discretion as to what part of his farm may be suffering 
most. 

His corn, too, needs attention about this time, but if he 
must neglect one or the other, experience has shown that 
corn is much the hardier of the two, at least in a struggle 
with grass and weeds. Cotton is jealous and exacting in 
its nature ; it must have attention, and dies for want of it ; 
or, if the plant does not die amid the grass, it soon looks 
yeUow and sickly, and suffers a stunting which will abridge 
its bearing time three weeks or a month. 

By the twentieth or twenty-fifth of May, the industrious 
planter has probably been twice over his crop, and the 
plants are thinned out to the final or permanent stand. 
The rest is now comparatively easy. The plows must con- 
tinue to riin until the middles are all broken oxit ; but here 
2 



26 COTTOK CULTUEE. 

it may be remarked that the cultivation varies Avitli the 
season, and with the situation of the land. In a summer 
blessed with the usual rainfall, the plowing goes on, 
the dirt being thrown up from the middles to the beds. 
If, however, the rainfall is excessive, so as to form a crust 
around the roots, it is advisable to cany a light ploAV near 
the stand so as to break up this crust, and allow the air 
and sun to strike upon the roots of the plant. 

If, on the other hand, the season is uncommonly dry, it 
is best to put a larger j^low into the middles, and throw 
up a ridge of dirt that will to some extent protect the 
roots. But on these points, " doctors disagree," and first- 
rate planters differ in practice. The opinion is almost uni- 
versal, however, especially in cultivating the alluvions and 
the black lands, that the tendency of the plowing should 
be constantly towards the ridge, and not away from it. 

Cotton is a plant that loves heat, and does not demand 
large supplies of moisture. The climate, or the distribu- 
tion of rain with sunshine, is a matter which the planter 
cannot control ; he can only take it into account in choos- 
ing the region where he would have his form located. 
After the plant is six inches high, it is really surprising how 
little rain will make a crop. An excess of moisture, or 
heavy rains followed by a fierce sun on flat lands, when 
the plant is young, is likely to breed lice upon it. This is 
the first enemy from the insect world that the planter has 
to meet. A few weeks later, the same state of things will 
produce rust upon cotton. The diseases and insects de- 
structive of the cotton plant are fully described in a sub- 
sequent pai't of this treatise, and all that need be said 
here is that brisk working is almost the only remedy in 
the planter's j^ower. Let him stir the earth actively, and 
raise the ridge so as to keep standing water away from the 
roots of the plant. 

As to the shape and weight of the plows that are ixsed 
in cultivating a crop of cotton, there is much variety of 



COTTOX CULTURE. 



opinion, as well as much room for imjjrovement. The 
ordinary light Avooden plow, with a moulding board of 
oak faced with iron, of easy draught, and making a furrow 
two or three inches deep, answers all the purposes of the 
cotton grower quite well. Planters differ, also, as to the 
propriety of ever plowing deep, except the first time when 
the beds are made. Certain it is that very fine crops are 
habitually made by the use of small, shallow running 
plows. 

After the middles are brolaen out, it is clear that some 
form of imjjlement Avhich shall scrape or break up a con- 
siderable surface, may be used with advantage. A favorite 
plow, if such it may be called, among the planters in the 
Gulf States, is the sweep or Eagle. It is made by fitting 
flanks or wincrs to the side of the common scooter or bull 




Fig. 3. — COTTON SWEEP. 

tongue plow, in such a way as to carry a cutting edge 
about an inch beneath the surface. It displaces the earth 
very little, but is an excellent weed-killer, and tends to 
throw the earth from the middles up to the rows. These 
wings are made to extend so that in ordinary four-foot 
rows, once passing over the soil will be sufficient. The 
cotton sweep represented in Fig. 2, is one of those offered 



28 



COTTON CULTURE, 



in tlie market, and is constructed on much the same 
principle as here described. Some prefer the ordinary 
corn-cultivators, and on light lands where it is not im- 
portant to Ibed high, they are probably every way as good 
as the sweep. The principal thing is, that whatever tool 
you may select should be kept briskly moving. After 
the second working of the cotton crop, the hoe may to a 
great extent be dispensed with, but the plow can by no 
means be laid aside even thousxh the weeds and sri'ass are 




COTTON FLOWEK. — {Sea Inland.) 



subdued. During June and the early part of July it is 
important to press the growth of the plant, and nothing 
does this so eifectively as frequent stirring of the soil. 
As a rule, the jilanter should manage so as to get over 



COTTON CULTURE. 



29 



his crop once in two weeks in new, rough, and grassy 
lands, or when the season is uncommojily wet. 

In a favorable season, once in three weeks will suffice. 
A fovorable season for cotton is one in which the principal 
rainfall comes in early spring, and the summer which 
follows has few rainy days, but short though frequent 
showers. 

In June and July, especially, a long wet spell is injurious, 
as also are all sudden and great variations in the amount 
of moisture. On cotton jDlanted early in April and well 
tended, the blossoms begin to show in the first days of June. 
No crop cultivated in this country is so beautiful as cot- 
ton. During the month of June the cotton fields present 
the appearance of vast flower gardens. The blossom is 
something like that of the hollyhock, and its peculiarity is 
the change of color that takes place from day to day. A 

flower will open in 
the morning of a 
pale straw color, by 
noon it will be pure 
white, in the after- 
noon of a faint pink, 
and the next morn- 
ing a clear pink. Sea 
Island cotton, how- 
ever, gives a bloom 
tliat is always a pale 
yellow. 

As the flowers fall 
off", the " forms," as 
they are called, or 
the young bolls, be- 
gin to grow rapidly. 
At first they are somewhat angular in shape, and the en- 
veloping leaf forms a sort of tuft or rufile at the base. As it 
swells, the lines grow rounder, though it never becomes 




THE BOLL NEARLY KIPE. 



30 COTTON CULTUKK. 

quite spherical. Great changes in the degree of moisture 
are now very mischievous. A copious rain, followed by- 
hot sun in the latter part of June and in July, will cause 
the plant to throw out a great number of forms, and the 
planter's prospects are flattering. But if the heat con- 
tinues for ten days or two weeks without timely showers, 
the plant seems to feel that it has undertaken too much, 
and sheds a great number of its forms. This shedding, 
however, will be checked by a moderate shower ; but a 
copious rain, followed by drouth, will cause the same 
phenomenon again. When the plant approaches maturity 
in size, that is to say, when the branches are beginning to 
interlock across the middles, it is doubtful whether the 
plow can be of much benefit. Deep plowing at this stage 
is clearly injurious. Besides the principal or tap-root of 
the cotton plant, which runs directly down, it sends ofi* 
side shoots or sprangles, not so many or so long as those 
of corn, but enough to be much mangled and broken by a 
plow, or any other implement, that runs more than two 
inches below the surface. The breaking of these roots, 
and putting out of new ones, checks the advance of the 
crop, and tends to produce a fresh or second growth, the 
bolls of which will be immature at the coming of frost. 

The true policy is to push the growth of cotton just as 
rapidly as possible until the branches interlock, and then 
let the vigor of the plant go to making and perfecting 
bolls. 

The old and established routine among the planters of 
the Gulf States is as described above, and may be condensed 
into a formula as follows : 

First. — In two weeks after planting har off; that is, run 
a light plow close to the young plants, cutting av/ay the 
grass, and throwing dirt from the row. The hoes follow 
and chop oiit^ leaving clumps of five or six plants a foot 
and a half apart. 

Second. — Ten days or two weeks after, mould or dirt 



COTTONS CULTURE. 31 

the cottou ; that is, let the plows throw the mould up to 
the i-ow, the hoes to follow thinnuig the plants to a stand, 
and leaving everything clean and smooth. The plows keep 
running till the middles are all broken out. 

After this, from the last of May on, the cultivation is 
jnainly with the plow, sweep or cultivator, the hoes going 
rapidly over and thinning out if the stand appears too 
thick. 

I have known excellent crops raised where this routine 
was very much modified. For instance, a planter near a 
great river may be occupied during April and a pai*t of 
of May in building a levee to keep the water off his 
fields. It may be the middle of May before he goes 
over his crop the first time. In that case he had better 
cut away to a stand the first time over, and at the same 
time break out his middles. Where the first cultivation 
is tlius thorough, the subsequent Avorkings may be very 
rapid, and one hoeing make a good clear crop. But this 
can only be on old land that has been carefully cultivated 
for many years, till the weeds and grass are well 
killed out. As a rule, and in four cases out of five, ten 
days of the moist, hot weather, characteristic of the spring 
months in the Cotton States, will make afield look " hairy," 
and the plows must be hastened into it. 

As the summer solstice approaches, and during the fierce 
heat of July and the early part of August, care must be 
taken for the comfort of both the laborer and his mule. 
The plowman cannot move to the field too early. At the 
first gleam of dawn, let him lay the plow-line over his neck, 
and get his animal between the cotton rows. But he 
should come in early from the midday heat. Unless the 
crop is suffering, let him knock ofl" at eleven o'clock, and 
have a nooning of three or four hours, during which the 
horse or mule may cool off in the shade, and be in a con- 
dition to eat heartily of dry fodder with some corn. If 
possible, and with ten mules to a hundred acres, it can be 



32 COTTOX CULTURE, 

done, the plowman should shift his harness to another ani- 
mal in the afternoon, and thus keep the condition of his 
stock well up. A brisk pace before the plow should be 
insisted upon. As a general thing, the resistance of a 
small plow or sweep in the light friable soil where cotton 
flourishes, is not more than fifty pounds, often not more 
than twenty-five, so that when the rows are straight and 
even, a good animal can keep up a pace of three miles an 
hour. So with the hoes. Two rapid though somewhat 
careless Avorkings are better than one that is slow and 
thorough ; for until the plant is nearly grown, it cannot 
have the dirt stirred around it too often. 

The chief improvement on the old modes of culture that 
can be made is in the rapidity and evenness of planting, 
as mentioned in the foregoing chapiter, and in the first 
working. 

Where the row of young plants is straight at the first 
working, that is, at the time of the appearance of the third 
leaf, it requires but little thought to see that some imple- 
ment could be devised to throw the dirt away, and kill 
the grass on each side at the same time. The Shanghai 
plow, as it is not very elegantly called, proposes to do 
this, and some planters who have used it, speak highly of 
the invention. It consists of two small plows fastened to 
one beam, one throwing a furrow to the right, the other 
to the left, and leaving a clear sj)ace of about six inches 
between them. It should be drawn by two horses walk- 
ing on each side of the row, while the plow moves on the 
crest, the line of young plants entirely guarded by the 
open space between the two shares. Some planters have 
found that the same result may be accomplished by taking 
out the forward hoes of a common cultiA^ator, and keeping 
it astride the bed. 

We give here a cut and description of one of the Cot- 
ton-seed Planters that are before the public, and w^hich 
promises well, though as yet it has been tested by but 



COTTON CULTURE. 



few cotton growers. Those who have used this speak 
emi^hatically in its praise. That implement which proves 
itself best adapted to the work to be done, will of course 
find favor, and there are several cotton-seed planters which 
have not yet been fairly tested. 

The accompanying cut represents a barrel-shaped re- 
volving seed-box, C, with a shaft or axle running through 
its centre, to which the v/heels are attached, and the re- 
A'olving movement keeps the seed constantly in motion. 
It is distributed evenly, or properly separated in the row, 




5 — ingeksoit's E^voITI^G cottonseed planter 
Ritented June 25th, 1867. 

through a series of inner openings and one outer opening 
on the under side, which is provided with a lever and slide, 
and the quantity of seed discharged is regulated by mov- 
ing the slide lever G. The distribution of the seed is 
thus accomplished by a mechanical movement, very sim- 
ple, effectual, and certain, and no complication of gear- 
work or springs to get out of order. 

The coulter. A, is used Avhen necessary to clear away 
stalks, vines, etc., on the surface. 

The furring-wheel, J'^ marks the ground more or less 
deep where the seed is to fall. 



COTTOK CULTURE. 



The drag-bar, Z>, has two adjustable covering shares, 
-S _B, which will run over obstructions without catching, 
and cover the seed well and evenly. 

The lever, S, raises both furring-wheel and drag-bar 
off the ground, when not wanted. 

By reversing the form of the seed-box, so that the seed 
will fall from both ends, a machine is made by which two 
rows are j^lanted at once. In this case, the horse travels 
between the rows, the man rides on the machine, the 
wheels running on the ridges, and the seed is dropped just 
inside of each, and covered as shown above. By this 
simple and desirable improvement, one man can plant 15 
to 20 acres per day, and it is a matter of great importance 
that the planting be accomplished as soon as possible after 
the ground is ready for the seed. 

These machines are manufactured in a substantial and 
durable manner by Ingersoll & Dougherty, Green Point, 
Kings Co., L. I. 




FOSTER'S COTTON SEED PLANTER. 



Fig. 6 represents Foster's Cotton Seed Planter, as sold 
by R. H. Allen & Co., of New York. The implement is 
the invention of Newton Foster, of Palmvra, N. Y., and 



COTTON CULTURE. 35 

■\Yas put ui^on the market in 18G0, when a few were sold. 
Orders now coming from localities where these were sent, 
in absence of other testimony, indicate that it gives some 
satisfaction. The seed, as it comes from the gin, is put 
into the conical hopper and distributed with considerable 
uniformity, tliough in rather large quantity, by curved 
arms revolving on the bottom and pressing the seeds out 
through openings in the base of the cone, whence they 
are conducted by a funnel to the drill, which is opened and 
covered by the machine in its. passage. 

The best mode of planting and cultivating a cotton croj), 
implements and all considered, may be briefly described 
as follows ; it being understood that the land is capable 
of producing a bale to the acre with the season favorable. 
/ Break up the whole surface early in March, and bed up'^ 
for the rows, placing them four or four and a half feet apart. 
On the first of April, run a small harrow along the top of \ 
the bed, follow it by a triangular piece of wood that will | 
make a straight, well defined trench, and drop the seeds, 
after being soaked in a fertilizing mixture and rolled in 
ashes and plaster, at intervals of two or three inches ; 
cover with a board that shall leave a smooth, rounded 
surface. 

When the third leaf appears, use a Shanghai plow or 
some similar implement that will straddle the row, and 
clean away the grass and weeds on both sides at once. 
Let the hoes follow, cutting out to a stand, and use sweeps 
or light plows in breaking out the middles. 

Go over the crop once in fifteen days with the plow, and ' 
follow with the hoe, if necessary, till the plant is so far 
grown that the branches begin to interlock across the 
middles. Then " lay by." Your crop is assured unless 
damaged or destroyed by the boll worm or the army worm, 
or killed by a premature frost. 



oQ COTTON CULTURE. 

CHAPTER ly. 

COTTON PICKING. 

Early in August the fortunate and enterprising planter 
will walk in fi-om a survey of liis crop with two or three 
open bolls in his hand. His harvest is approaching. He 
plans to have his fodder pulling done in a week, if not al- 
ready over, and he looks after his sacks and baskets. A 
yard and a half or two yards of strong Lowell, made into a 
wide-mouthed suck, and furnished with a broad double 
strap to go over the neck, is provided for every hand on 
the place. 

The mouth or opening should be made so as to hang 
open, convenient for the picker. A cord or rope, as big as 
the httle finger, sewed all around the top on the outside, 
helps keep the bag open. The length of tlie strap and 
depth of the bag should be carefully adjusted to the size 
and figure of the laborer, for the planter can ill afibrd to 
waste the strength, or needlessly multiply the motions of 
a picker. Each hand should also have his basket. These 
are made of wide, white oak splits, coarse in texture, not 
very heavy, and capable of holding about four bushels.- 
It is very well to have each sack and each basket branded 
or otherwise marked with the name of the laborer, as it 
prevents confusion, and it is well known that a workman 
is always better satisfied to feel that he has absolute and 
certain control of his tools. 

As soon as you can look down between two rows of 
cotton, and count half a dozen open bolls, start in the 
pickers. They will get more than it seems likely that 
they would, and, if active, will probably come out with 
forty or fifty pounds. From this time on till nearly Christ- 
mas the one great business on a cotton plantation, to which 
everything else must yield, and in which every available 
finger should be employed, is picking. There is no crop 



COTTON CULTUFvj:. 



37 



known, at least in this country, of which the harvesting is 
so long and monotonous. One boll is just like another, one 
row the fac simile of its nciglibor. There is no science or 
ingenuity that has been brought, or is likely to be made 
effectual in very much modifying, abridging or lightening 







Fig. 7.— THE COTTON PLANT. 

this labor. In the nature of things, it must be done by the 
fingers, and by the fingers only, in order to be done well. 
The green seed or Mexican and Petit Gulf cotton, which is 
tlic variety chiefly cultivated in this country, when fully 
mature, opens its burr or shell quite wide, and the mass of 
cotton within gradually fiills outward, and droops by the 
weight of the seeds. At some periods of the picking sea- 



38 COTTOX CULTUEE. 

son, for instance duriug tlie mouth of October, these open 
bolls, with the handful of snowy fibre hanging loose and 
fleecy, sometimes six or eight inches downward from the 
stem, present a beautiful and interesting sight. 

It seems like very easy work to gather a material which 
sliows itself in such abundance as fairly to whiten the field, 
but let the skeptic or the grumbler take a bag on his 
shouldei-, and start in between a couple of rows. He will 
find, upon taking hold of the first boll, that the fibres are 
quite firmly attached to the interior lining of the pod, and 
if he makes a quick snatch, thinking to gather the entire 
lock, he will only tear it in two, or leave considerable adher- 
ing to the pod. And yet he may notice that an experienced 
picker will gather the cotton, and lay his fingers into the 
middle of the open pod with a certain expertness which 
only practice gives ; the efiect of which is to clear the 
whole pod with one movement of the hand. Even long 
practice does not enable every laborer to become a rapid 
picker, no more than every printer is a fast compositoi-. 
There is a knack in cotton picking as in type setting, which 
cannot be acquired by all. Women generally make the 
fastest i^ickers, and next to them will be found the small, 
compact young man, weighing about a hundred and forty 
pounds, and not more than five feet eight inches in height. 
Good pickers are generally quiet, sometimes not speaking 
a word from one end of the row to the other. They are 
persons who habitually keep their minds directly on the 
thing in hand, and who, by the constitution of their bodies, 
enjoy the intensity of swift motions, and naturally love to 
accomplish a good deal in what they are doing. When 
the bag attains the weight of, say twenty-five pounds or 
more, there should be a convenient arrangement for trans- 
ferring its contents to the basket. It is here that the skill 
and calculation of a planter are manifested. For instance, 
if you set your baskets beside one of the plantation roads, 
and start your hands in to go from there to the other side 



COTTOjST cultuee. 39 

of the field and back, they may gather twenty-five pounds 
in the outward trip. Then coming back to the baskets, 
they will gather twenty-five more. It is easy to see that 
the last half of the load will be collected with very much 
more fatigue and inconvenience than the first half; for, in 
addition to the labor of picking, the laborer has to carry 
on his homeward trip twenty-five pounds weight which is 
continually increasing until it becomes fifty before he is 
relieved of it. Picking, though not heavy work, is tire- 
some, and in the last degree monotonous, so that regard 
for the comfort of the laborer, as well as desire to advance 
the work, will suggest that the planter make every possible 
arrangement to relieve and lighten the task, and enable 
the picker to take his work at the very best advantage. 

Let the field be divided up by lanes and roads in such 
a way that the picker will never carry much weight in his 
bag. The bags are emptied into the basket as soon as 
filled, and it is desirable that the hands should keep along 
together so as to come out about the same time. In fact, 
it is policy to let the fost pickers work some on the rows 
of the young and slow pickers. This gives encouragement, 
keeps the gang of laborers together, and stimulates the 
slower ones to keep up. ISTothing is more disheartening 
to a young or feeble picker, than to find himself two or 
three hundred yards in the rear of the main force, tired, 
■with a heavy bag, all the time painfully conscious of his 
inferiority to the rest, and perhaps too frequently reminded 
of it by harsh and discouraging words. Though too much 
talking and singing must interfere with labor, it is earn- 
estly recommended to every cotton grower to take care to 
secure cheerfulness if not hilarity in the field. 

Remember that it is a very severe strain upon the pa- 
tience and spirits of any one, to be urged to rapid labor of 
precisely the same description, day after day, week after 
week, month after month. Humanity, to say nothing of 
self-interest, (and here humanity and self-interest are iden- 



40 COTTOJf CULTURE. 

tical,) must suggest variovis cheap and harmless modes of 
relieving the tedium of tins kind of labor. Fo: instance, 
let there be refreshments at the baskets, a dish of hot 
coffee in a cool morning, or a JDail of buttermilk in a hot 
afternoon, or a tub of sweetened water, or a basket of 
apples, so that when the gang come out from between 
the rows, and empty their bags, they may for a few mo- 
ments enjoy themselves, take a little rest, and indulge in 
a harmless joke before setting in again. They will be cer- 
tain to more than make up the time by the swiftness with 
which their fingers Avill sj)ring from one snowy boll to an- 
other, and swiftness of movement is, of all things, what 
you most need in order to harvest your crop in good time 
and in good condition. This cannot be expected where 
the spirits droop, and life is made to seem burdensome. 
Additional wages should also be paid to the largest 
pickers. It may be best, in some cases, to change the 
terms of labor in the picking time, and pay so many cents 
for every hundred pounds, but as the picking varies greatly, 
according to the openness of the bolls, this is not so good 
a plan as to give a bonus of so much for every ten pounds 
over one hundred or one hundred and fifty or two hun- 
dred, which the picker brings in at night. Care should 
be taken also, to abridge all the labor that is done after 
the picking ceases at night. The health of your force re- 
quires this, for during the principal part of the picking 
season, the contrast between the temperature of midday 
and after nightfall is very great, and chill and fever must 
follow where a person is exposed to both without corres- 
ponding change of dress. The practice on a great number 
of the plantations in the Gulf States, under the old regime, 
was decidedly faulty in this respect. 

The hands were expected to be in the field at early 
dawn, and commence picking as soon as they could see. 
In SeiDtember, and much more so in October, and the fol- 
lowing months of autumn, tlie dews are heavy and cold. 



COTTOISr CULTUKE. 41 

The clothing becomes wet, and the frame chilled in the 
raw, morning air. But, soon after sunrise, the temperature 
begins to rise rapidly, and by ten o'clock the thermometer 
may stand between seventy and eighty degrees. This 
degree of heat continues for several hours, but decHnes 
very fast at sunset, so as to be as low as forty by the time 
the stars appear. The cotton field will naturally be situated 
on the lowest lands, and at night the malarious air falls, 
so as to make them the most unwholesome of any in the 
vicinity. The effect of exposing laborers daily to such 
vicissitudes can easily be imagined. 

About nine o'clock in the morning, one and another of 
a gang of laborers would come out of the field, sick with 
a violent chill. This would be followed by a high fever, 
and the hand kept from earning anything for three or four 
days, and often a week. 

There is no time in the year when the cotton grower 
can so ill afford to have his force diminished, as in the 
picking season. Labor is then everywhere in demand. 
Good pickers can always command high wages, and every- 
body that can work is then occupied. 

Let the planter remember that an ounce of prevention 
is worth a j^ound of cui'e. Coffee is the most agreeable 
preventive of miasmatic disease, and quinine the most 
effective. In picking time, every plantation on low lands 
should be supplied with both, and should use the former 
with liberality, and the latter in moderation. 

Let the pickers have the sunlight upon them the whole 
time of their being at work. Kindle a fire at the baskets 
before they go out, set on a big pot or kettle of coffee, and 
have it boihng before sunrise. Give each hand a half pint 
of it, and with it a hard cracker, a roast potato, or a jiiece 
of bread. Then, at eight, provide breakfast. Let the 
Avork be brisk till nearly sunset, pausing only for dinner, 
and manage to have the day's picking weighed and stored 



42 COTTON CULTURE. 

away in the gin-house or in cribs, made for the purpose, 
before the dew falls upon it. 

Though such is not the custom, probably, there is no 
time so favorable for sorting and trashing cotton, as when 
it is first picked. It is less matted then than at any sub- 
sequent handUng, and the particles of leaf and stalk and 
dirt are not entangled in the fibre, as they afterwards be- 
come. Instead of weighing the baskets, each hand, as he 
comes out, can hang his bag upon the hook of a spring 
balance before he empties it. Then let an invalid, an old 
person, or a woman, sit by the baskets, and sort over and 
trash the contents of each bag. 

Cotton of the Mexican, Petit Gulf, and Okra varieties, 
(all of which are " green seed " cottons, diifering very little 
in appearance,) will naturally class into four grades, as it 
comes fi-om the field. 

First. — The fine, long stapled cotton, clean, dry, and 
silken to the touch. This will greatly predominate in the 
early pickings, before the frosts and the heavy fall rains 
occur. 

Second. — The short, kinky bolls, that have been bored 
by the boll worm, and not quite killed, or which came late, 
and were unclenched by the frost, or which grew under 
the disadvantage of excessive or irregular moisture. 

Third. — Trashy cotton. This abounds after the heavy 
frosts, and the trash consists of minute fragments of leaves 
and stems, that become hopelessly mixed with the fibres, 
so as never to be entirely removed. They cause the small 
black specks that abound in the coarser varieties of Lowells 
and Osnaburgs. 

Fourth. — Dirty cotton. This comes in after heavy rains, 
accompanied by winds, which have blown out the contents 
of the pods, and beaten it into the earth, or driven sand 
all through the fibres. 

During the months of Se^itember and October, there is 
no need of having much trashy or dirty cotton. That which 



COTTON CULTURE. 43 

is kinky or imperfectly developed, should be carefully 
separated from the best, and either kept by itself or thrown 
with the other low grades. The manufacturer can use it 
in making strong, coarse fabrics. 

The cotton of long staple and high grade, should not be 
allowed to become damp Avith dew, but taken while still 
warm and dry, and stored in a shed or in the gin-house, 
and lie a month or two before it is ginned. This gives the 
oil in the seeds time to ascend into the fibres, thus impart- 
ing a fine, pale, straw color, which the manufacturer loves 
to see, and also increasing the weight. 

It is almost impossible, after the heavy frosts, to pick 
cotton free of trash, and where the crop is large, more than 
half of it may come under this description. In some con- 
ditions of the market, planters find the diiference between 
trashy and clean cotton so little, as to discourage them 
from efforts to send a fine article to market. But, in gen- 
eral, moderate painstaking will enable the grower to com- 
mand from two to five cents more per j)ound. 

The thoughtful planter will also manage so as to have 
the cotton handled as few times as possible, both to econo- 
mize labor, finish work as early as possible, and prevent 
his staple from becoming matted and dirty. Where ten 
baskets are to be emptied twice a day, there is no need of 
pouring them into a great box wagon, stamping down, and 
then unloading, by filling the basket again at the crib or 
gin-house. When the work is in a remote field, and the 
weighing is done by torchlight, the hands about the 
wagons may not get their suppers till eight or nine o'clock. 

Where the roads are good, an excellent plan is to couple 
the fore and hind wheels of a wagon with a pole of proper 
length, lay two other poles or long planks on the axle- 
trees, set the basket on them, and empty at the gin-house. 
If the weighing is done in a bag, this is entirely practicable, 
and allows all the hands to get to their houses in half an 
hour after they came out from the rows. Wlierc the num- 



44 COTTON CULTURE. 

ber of baskets is large, some other plan can easily be de- 
vised by one who is studying how to get the greatest 
amount of work done in the shortest time, and with the 
least wear of muscle. 

The month of October is the height of the picking 
season in the best cotton regions. Many fields that were 
rapidly picked early in September, are now literally " white 
for the harvest." Now the planter cannot urge his work 
too zealously. But let him not, in his pushing, encroach 
upon the hours of relaxation and sleep. His rule 
should be : " Gather no cotton upon which the sun is not 
shining, and to pay high for fast picking rather than for 
night work." 

At times, in the picking season, it will be advisable to 
divide the force, especially where it is large, into "fast 
pickers" and "the trash gang," instructing the former to 
press along, and gather rapidly all the fair clean cotton 
that is hanging open on the upper branches of the bush, 
the others to follow, gleaning all that remains, the imper- 
fect bolls, that which has fallen to the ground, or been 
trailed in the dirt. 

The picking season lasts from three to four months, in- 
cluding all of September, October, and November, and 
frequently a part of August and December. But w^here 
cotton opens early, there is no reason why it should not be 
nearly all gathered by the tenth of December. 

In the older regions of the South, as Geoi'gia and South 
Carolina, it has been the usual practice to weigh but once 
a day, and to require a hundred and fifty pounds as a 
day's work. In good open cotton, a fast hand will gather 
this amount in five or six hours, but in the beginning, as at 
the close of the season, the whole day will be consumed 
in picking this number of pounds. 

It requires rather more than three times the weight of 
lint to make a given amount of unginned cotton. Thus, 
from fifteen to eighteen hundred pounds of cotton in the 



COTTON CULTURE. 45 

seed will be required in making a Ibale of the usual weight. 
Ten good hands can i^ick a bale per day. Hence, if ten 
hands have planted a hundred acres, which proves a good 
crop, they will consume a hundred days in picking it out. 



CHAPTER V. 

GINNING, BALING AND MARKETING. 

In detailing, step by step, the process of cotton raising, 
we have hitherto been dealing, as it were, with fixed quan- 
tities. The directions given for the stock and implements 
of a cotton farm, the preparation of the soil, the selection 
of seed, the planting and cultivation, and, as in the last 
chapter, the j^icking and storing of cotton in the seed, 
apply with hardly any variations to the production 
of the crop wherever it is extensively raised in the 
United States. No material changes can be made in this 
routine, whether you have selected a warm and siinny 
slope in southern Illinois, or drop your seed into the rank 
and teeming soil of Louisiana, in fields bordered by rows 
of orange trees. 

We speak now not so much of what must be done, as of 
what may be done. The producer now has in his sheds, 
or, perhaps, in cribs in the field, a large amount of cotton 
in the seed. When the picking season comes to an end, to- 
ward the middle of December, he may have a hundred 
and forty thousand pounds ; that is on the supposition that 
his ten hands have been successful in the cultivation of a 
hundred acres. Every thrifty planter, however, must be 
sujDposed to have anticipated the marketing of his crop, 
and to have made, at least, some preparation in the earlier 
part of the season for ginning and baling. 

If there was no gin on the place, it is fair to suppose 
that he bought one in August, while the crop was in the 



46 COTTOX CULTURE, 

interval between cultivation and harvest, and made arrange- 
ments, more or less complete, for the easy and rapid hand- 
ling of his crop when picked. These arrangements may 
be of various degrees of rudeness, from a simple open shed, 
sufficient only to shelter his machinery, or a big-walled 
tent, to a large, complete, and perfectly appointed gin- 
house, costing three or four thousand dollars. 

As a general thing, horse-power is employed in ginning 
American cotton. On very large plantations, where the 
amount raised approximates to a thousand bales, a steam 
gin is in most cases erected. These are matters that de- 
pend almost entirely upon the amount of capital that one 
brings to the business, the j^ermanence with which the 
planter expects to be engaged in cotton-raising, and the 
depth and richness of the land he is cultivating. 

The principle of the cotton-gin is simple, and its mechan- 
ism is not complicated. The ingenuity and patience dis- 
played by Eli Whitney in inventing and perfecting this 
machine, and the wonderful effect it has had in the social 
and political economy of the world, are spoken of more 
fully in the closing chapter of this treatise. But at this 
point in cotton producing, every good planter must become, 
to some extent, a mechanic ; for no person can successfully 
operate with a machine like the cotton-gin, who does not 
quite thoroughly understand the precise mode in which it 
operates, when it does the work Avell, and when imper- 
fectly, and how its different parts are to be adjusted so as 
to perform their office in the best manner. 

Take a wooden cylinder, say four feet long, and five 
inches in diameter. Fasten upon it a series of small cir- 
cular saws, say nine inches in diameter, so that the edge 
will rise two inches above the cylinder all around. Let 
there be eighty of these saws ; they will be set upon the 
cylinder a fraction over half an inch apart. The teeth of 
these saws are filed, so as turn from you as you stand be- 
fore the cylinder. Now place your cylinder, thus armed 



COTTOX CULTTTEE. 47 

with its thousands of little saw teeth, upon bearings, and 
let it revolve, bringing a considerable mass of cotton in 
the seed to press against these teeth. It is easy to see that, 
if the cylinder revolves raj^idly, the teeth must very soon 
pull off the lint from the seeds to which it is attached. 
These teeth play between steel bars, which allow the lint, 
but not the seed to pass. 

Now below the saws fit a set of stiff brushes upon an- 
other cylinder, and let them revolve in the opposite direc- 
tion. Their effect will be to brush off and clear away 
from the saw-teeth of the cylinder the lint which they 
have just pulled from the seed. You need now a fan, re- 
volving so as to make a blast of air, in order to throw the 
light and downy lint, which has thus been liberated, to a 
convenient distance from the revolving saws and brushes. 

These three are the essential parts of the Whitney cot- 
ton-gin. All the rest is cabinet work. A number of im- 
provements have, of late years, been made in this machine, 
the effect of -which is to pick the cotton more perfectly 
from the seed, to prevent the teeth from cutting the 
staple, and to give greater regularity to its operations- 
But when you have purchased a gin, the principal consid- 
eration will be, how to place it in such a way that the 
cotton may be brought to it with the least labor, and how 
the lint may be taken to the screw, or other arrangement 
for pressing, with the greatest convenience. 

The power for driving the gin is in-oduced by two or 
more horses acting on an upright, which revolves on an 
iron pivot. Horizontal arms extend, say, ten feet. There 
are, usually, four of these arms, to which the horses are 
attached. At the upper end of this vertical revolving 
shaft, is a large cog-wheel, say twenty feet in diameter, 
the teeth of which play into a ratchet wheel, to the axle 
of which a large drum is attached. This geai'ing gives 
sufficient rapidity of motion to the drum, from w^hich a 
band passes directly to the gui. 



48 



COTTOIir CULTURE. 



A aud ^ represent respectively the first and second 
stories of a gin-house. V /S (Fig. 8) is a vertical shaft, with 
horizontal arms, to which horses are attached at h and h, 
which pull around in the dotted path. At the south end 
of the building, ;S' represents an iron screw Avorking in a 
strong frame, and driven upward hj a mule, m, towards 
JP, the packing-box, whicli opens in the second storj. 

G, in this story, (Fig. 9,) is the gin, which discharges gin- 
ned cotton into Jj the lint room, where it is picked up by the 



;;,:: 


'.'-'- 




~'~- 




/ 








\ 


/ 










' 








\1 




V 


-©^ 




/ 
/ 












^ 






s 


©'" 


m 













M 


B 


M 




1 IllllllijII llllllllllll 


W 




W 

G 
/ \ 


— 


L 

P 






i: :i 




W w 





Fig. 



Fig. 



armful, and thrown into the packing-box; W, W, W, W, 
are windows, so placed as to throw strong light on G, the 
gin, and P, the press ; the short lines, M, 3f, represent a 
double open staircase, up which the seed-cotton is carried 
on the shoulders of the laborers. They go up one flight, 
and down the other, so as not to interfere with each other. 
In the latter part of the picking season, after the fall 
rains set in, much of the cotton which comes from the 



COTTO?^ CULTURE. 49 

field will be damp, not to say wet, and much of that which 
was picked dry, and has been stored in cribs or sheds, will 
be too damp for the gin. 

The rule is that no cotton is fit to gin unless the seed 
snaps brittle between the teeth. Hence a necessary accom- 
paniment of every gin is a scaffolding, more or less exten- 
sive, upon which the cotton may be sunned. In most 
cases, this scaffolding consists of boards rudely supported 
on blocks or stakes driven in the earth, and, where the 
amount of cotton to be sunned is not large, a permanent 
and more expensive arrangement would hardly pay. But 
on the lower bottoms of tlie Cotton States, what with tlje * 
heavy dews, frequent rains, and late j^icking, there is al- 
ways a great deal of cotton on the scaffold. Hence it be- 
comes important that it should be so arranged as to afford 
the utmost convenience in handling; for every laborer 
unnecessarily kept around the gin-house, is so much sub- 
tracted from the picking force. There is no reason why 
two hands, with a boy to drive the mules, should not con- 
duct all parts of the ginning process, but the practice has 
been to have three, four, and sometimes five hands, more 
or less, busy about a gin-hoiise. 

The side view, presented on tlie next page, will give a 
tolerably clear conception of a very convenient arrange- 
ment for drying cotton. 

The gin-house is presumed to stand north and south, 
giving at its southern end a sunny exposure, where the 
scaffold, S, is erected. It will be seen that this scaffold 
extends from the left, or third story, in a gradual slope to 
within six feet of the ground. It is supported by posts, 
which should be charred at the lower end to prevent decay. 
At the end next the building, it is high enough to enable 
a loaded wagon to drive imder, and discharge cotton that 
is .perfectly dry into either story of the gin-house. The 
slope of the scaffold should be so gentle as to admit of 
easy walking upon it, and shoiild be roofed with some 
3 



50 



COTTON CULTUEE. 



material as tin tlaixt Las been sanded, or felt roofing covered 
with gravel, so as not to become slippery, Avhicli would be 
the case with shingles or boards. The shelter beneath this 
scafibldino- afibrds ample and convenient room for storing 
a hundred bales of cotton. 

When a load of cotton comes in from the field wet or 
damp, it can be driven close alongside of this scafibld, and 
rapidly unloaded. If the day is clear, a few hours of sun 
will fit it for the gin, and the labor of putting it into bas- 
kets, and carrying up the gentle slope into the loft of the 




Fig. 10.— GIN-HOUSE WITH SCAFFOLD. 

gin-house is very moderate. C C represents a broad sheet 
of painted canvass, which is rolled around a jjole after the 
manner of a street awning. In clear weather this canvass 
is kept snugly rolled at the upper end of the scaffolding, 
just under the threshold of the loft door. In case of a sud- 
den shower, instead of calling hands fi'om the field to hurry 
the cotton under shelter, two hands can take hold of the 
opposite ends of the canvass pole, and in two minutes 
have everything on the scafibld securely protected from 
wet. An arrangement of this sort is evidently a great 
labor saver, and is almost equal to the addition of another 
hand to the picking force. 

These arrangements for ginning and baling cotton are 



COTTOJT CULTURE. 51 

described, not as being in the nature of things the best that 
might be devised, but as those in common use throughout 
the South. 

None of the presses on the plantations are as effective 
as they might be, and the result is that all of the crop that 
is packed into the holds of ships at Charleston, Mobile, 
New Orleans, and Galveston, three-foui'ths or four-fifths of 
all the staple grown has to be pressed and bound over 
again. The average expense of receiving, storing, pressing, 
and binding over, hauling down to the wharves and deliv- 
ering to the vessels, of a cotton crop, is two dollars per 
bale, and almost the whole of this is unnecessary. The 
number of bales received and shipped at New Orleans in 
1860 was, in round numbers, a million. This million of 
bales paid to draymen, shipping clerks, cotton-press men 
and the owners of cotton sheds, and commission merchants, 
two millions of dollars, all of which came out of the plant- 
ers, and the greater part of which (iould have been avoided 
by sending the cotton to market in compact, squai*e bales, 
thoroughly pressed, and well bound. Suppose, for in- 
stance, a cotton grower, in some part of the Mississippi 
Valley, produ^ces annually five hundred bales, which he 
sends to market in the usual way. At a moderate calcu- 
lation he pays a dollar and a half a bale in New Orleans, 
for having his cotton pressed over and for the hauling, 
storing, and waste incident to that ojjeration. Thus his 
defective packing costs him seven hundred and fifty dol- 
lars a year. Now, five hundred dollars would erect for 
him a strong press, operating on the hydraulic principle, in 
which he could make as small a bale as can be made in the 
powerful steam presses of New Orleans. But he need not 
resort to a hydraxilic press. The patentees of several of 
the improved hay and cotton-presses in use throughout 
the Northern States, will agi-ee for one hundred dollars 
more than the cost of the common iron or wooden screw 
arrangement, to put liim up a press, simple in principle 



52 COTTON CULTURE. 

and easy in its operation, that will put four hundred pounds 
of cotton into forty cubic feet, which is about the degree 
of compression given by the steam jiress. There is an- 
other important advantage to be gained by putting the 
cotton into small compact bales. Its freight will cost a 
third or a half less, whether by car or steamboat, it Avill 
waste less in handling, and, if bound Avith iron hoops, will 
be in far less danger of destruction by fire. 

Of late the iron hoop or tie has rapidly superseded the 
rope in former use, and it has the recommendation of being 
cheaper as well as every way better. 

It makes a neat, firm looking bale, not liable to burst 
from the untying or cutting of the ropes, and, as a grand 
advantage, the iron hoops hold the cotton so compactly 
that in case of a fire only the surface is scorched. 

In general, the hoop used among planters is too narrow, 
being less than an inch. If the cotton growers would use 
better presses, so as to force the usual number of pounds 
into a third or half less space than a four hundred-pound 
bale usually occupies, and then confine it with eight to ten 
hoops an inch or an inch and a quarter wide, the package 
would leave the gin-house in a condition to make the trip 
to Manchester or Lowell Avithout damage from fire, water, 
or rough and frequent handling. 

Since the eifect of the recent war in opening the South 
to free labor, and the application of Yankee ingenuity in 
overcoming the vai'ious problems and difficulties in cotton- 
growing, several cotton presses, ncAV in their design and 
admirable in their principle, have been submitted to the 
cotton growing community. 

Among these one of the best is that patented in 1860, by 
P. G. Gardner. The cut of this admirable press which faces 
this page, needs but little explanation. The efi:ect of turning 
the large cast iron wheels on ench side of the press, is to 
move the screws c and d Avith great force in the direction 
desired. These screAvs are fastened to a and 5, cast iron 



COTTON CULTURE. 53 

shafts, which move on the track laid for them by the 
wheels at their ends. 

. At their upper ends, these shafts are connected by a 
toggle-joint, above which is the follower, which moves up 
and down in the packing-box. , This cut represents the 




Fig. 11. — p. o. gardnek's cotton puess. 

position of the machinery Avlien the bale is compressed, 
that is, when the toggle-joint and the follower are at 
the top of the packing-box. By turning the wheels in 
the opposite direction from which they were turned to 
carry the follower up, a will be brought over to the left 



54 COTTON CULTUKE. 

side of the press, and h to the riglit side. Tliis will lower 
the follower to the bottom of the i^acking-box, when -it 
may bo filled with a new charge from the lint room, 
beneath which it should be set up. 

It will be seen at once by those at all familiar with the 
mechanical principles, that a combination of the toggle or 
elbow-joint with the screw and lever, gives immense power 
to this press. And the power is applied in just the way to 
liave the greatest effect upon a material so elastic as cot- 
ton. It is the last foot or two feet of the compression 
that demands power. The old wooden or iron screw will 
make a bale from three to four feet thick without much 
difficulty. But tliis press will take an ordinary bale, and 
compress it to a thickness of two feet, for it is the pecu- 
liarity of the toggle-joint piece, that its power becomes 
enormous when the two shafts that compose it approach a 
perpendicular or straight line. 

The size of a bale, when pressed by this machine, is five 
and a half feet long, two Avide, and about three feet high. 
Within this space, which is almost exactly a cubic yard, or 
twenty-seven solid feet, five hundred pounds can be com- 
pressed by two stout men working for five minutes on the 
wheels. Now, the average dimensions of the New Orleans 
bale, Avhich contains four hundred and fifty pounds, is 
thirty-two cubic feet. That is ; after the action of the im- 
mense steam compress, the ordinary New Orleans bale of 
commerce is five solid feet larger and fifty pounds lighter, 
than the package which two hands can produce at the 
plantation with this improved and powerful press. 

The cut (Fig, 12) represents a Plantation Cotton Press, 
Avhich is worked exclusively by hand-power, with the bale 
packed, sacked, and tied, and ready to be turned out. It 
is made by Messrs. Ingersoll & Dougherty, Green Point, 
Kings Co., N. Y. Other presses, to be worked by horse- 
power, are made by the same parties, imder patents issued 
April 15, 1856; June 16, 1863; July 28, 1863; and Janu- 



COTTON CULTURE. 



55 



ary 24, 18G5. The inauufocture of this press was com- 
menced in the spring of 1856. Since that time over 3000 
of them- have been put in use, and the very excellent rep- 
utation which they have gained, a 5 cheap, portable, and 




Fig. 13. — ingersoll's cotton press. 
convenient presses, induces us to present it here as one of 
the necessary, useful, and labor-saving machines, required 
by the planter in preparing his crop for transportation and 
a market. 

Two hands only are required to work it, and will put 



56 COTTON^ CULTURE. 

up, in good shajDe and well packed, twenty or more bales 
per day. 

The press is made of any size or weight of bale requir- 
ed, and when taken apart, it comprises 6 to 7 packages 
convenient for handling and shipping, and hence is well 
adapted to shipping to Central and South America, and 
other foreign countries, where they are often taken on the 
backs of mules to the interior of the country, and the cot- 
ton packed and brought back to the coast in bales of 
about 125 to 200 lbs. each. 

The No. 1 Press makes a bale of 300 lbs,, or under, and 
its gross weight is 800 to 1100 lbs. This size is mostly 
made for foreign shipment. 

No. 2. — Weight of bale 400 lbs. ; gross weight of Press 
IGOO lbs. 

No. 3.— Weight of bale 500 lbs. ; Ayeight of Press 1900 
lbs. Its portable form admits of its being set alongside 
of the gin and close to the cotton, or on any floor of the 
building. 

When the irons get worn out or bi'oken, duplicates can 
be sent by Express to any part of the country, at little 
expense. Catalogues with price-lists, etc., can be obtained 
by addressing the manufacturers. 

The cut (Fig. 13) represents Ingersoll's Bale Rope Tight- 
ener, patented June 25th, 1867. The same parties also man- 
ufacture the Iron Hoop and Wire Tightener. These are 
cheap and very convenient tools for drawing rope, hoop, 
or Avire tight on cotton or hay bales. The cut shows the 
application of the Bale Rope Tightener. Every person 
baling cotton will find this a desirable tool. Fig. 2 shows 
the point of the lever, Avith the clamps and the mode of 
putling the rope through them. 

The Avell-informed and successful cotton grower is more 
than a mere routine agriculturalist. As he needs some 
knowledge of mechanics, and facility in planning convenient 
arrangements about his gin-house, so in securing the best 



COTTOX CULTUKE. 



57 



price for his great staple, he requires to know some- 
thing of the great laws of supply and demand in cot- 
ton, so as to form a correct and intelligent judgment as to 
whether he shall sell or hold. 




Fig. 13. — ingersoll's bale rope tightener. 

It is of great importance that he estahlisli with the mer- 
cbant and the broker a high reputation for honor and cor- 
rectness in packing his staple, and preparing it for market. 

When George Washington was largely engaged in to- 
Ijacco growing, he shipped directly from the Potomac to 
London. There the tobacco inspectors opened eacli hogs- 
head to examine and pronounce upon its quality. After 



58 COTTOX CULTUEE. 

opening a great many of Washington's hogsheads, they 
were satisfied that he never sent anything but " prime ;" 
so at length they gave over examining tobacco that came 
Avith the brand " G. W." 

This shoxild be the ambition of every producer of a great 
staple. His brand should be a pledge of high quality and 
entire reliability as to the manner in which it is packed. 
The planter sliould also graduate his expenses, and manage 
liis account current with his factor, in such a way as to be 
able to take advantage of the market, and sell when he 
chooses, not as soon as he can. He should keep posted as 
to the cotton supply in England and elsewhere, and be 
able to give his merchant sound instructions as to what to 
do with his sliipments. 

The machineiy by which the producer of cotton com- 
municates with the spinner and weaver should be as simple 
as possible. 

Probably three-fourths of the crop is taken to market 
on steamboats, which land often within a hundred yards 
of the planter's door. 

They then go down to the exporting cities, as Mobile, 
New Orleans, Savannah, Galveston, and often pass directly 
by the ships that have come from New York, Boston, 
Liverpool, Havre, Antwerp, and St. Petersburg, and are 
waitmg to take in a cargo of cotton. Now, in the nature 
of things, what reason is there why the steamboat should 
not run alongside the ship, and discharge her cargo directly 
into the hold of the sea-going vessel, a gang of stevedores 
being at hand to stow it away, the agent of the foreign 
purchaser being on bonrd the ship, and sending back to 
the planter an account of sale and bill of lading, with a 
sight or a sixty or ninety day draft for the price ? How 
much delay, commission, waste, brokerage, vexation and 
loss might be avoided by a transaction so direct ! 

In that case, and at present jjrices, (December, 18G6,) 
the hundred bale cotton grower, whom we have been fol- 



COTTON CULTURE. 59 

lowing in his routine of plowing, planting, cultivating, 
picking, ginning, and pressing a crop, might, early in the 
year following, put his cotton in a Liverpool bottom, and 
receive his payment in a check on the Bank of England for 
twelve thousand dollars in British gold. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE COTTON PLANTER'S CALENDAR. 

What follows is in the nature of a summary and reca- 
pitulation of much that has been set forth in detail, in the 
foregoing five chapters. It is calculated for about the 
middle of the cotton belt, or the lands where cotton is pro- 
duced, between the thirty-second and the thirty-fourth 
degree of north latitude. Some other crops, such as com, 
peas, and oats ai'e alluded to, as they are cultivated more 
or less on every plantation. 

JANUARY. 

The gin is to be kept running most of the time during 
this month on last year's crop. It is best to have a con- 
venient scaffold arranged on the south side of your gin, of 
an easy slope, and joassing directly to the gin loft, so that 
cotton can be taken from the sheds or cribs, dried, and 
carried up to where it wall feed itself into the gin, or can 
be pulled in by the operator before the stand. 

Read the papers, keep informed as to rise or decline In 
the cotton market, the supply and demand. 

Have a powerful press, sufficient to put four hundred 
pounds into the space of forty cubic feet. Use wide iron 
hoops, and plenty of tliem. Look well after the ends of 
your bales, and see that they are perfectly snug. 



60 COTTON CULTURE. 

On pleasant da^^s, the hands may be breaking down the 
cotton stalks, or cleaving new land. 

This is a good time also to fill up washes and old gulches 
in the field, and prevent little ones from growing any- 
larger. Cut down pine bushes, and lay them in the washes 
lengthwise ; cane from the cane-brakes answers the same 
purpose very well. Take care of your cotton seed at this 
time. That which is intended for planting, should be 
stored in a shed or loft, where the air has free access, and 
stirred to prevent fermentation. The rest should be care- 
fully saved for manure. The ashes of it were found, by 
one analysis, to contain fifty-five per cent of potash, and 
if it is faithfully returned to the cotton field, and your 
lands prevented from washing, cotton will be foimd a very 
slow exhauster of the soil. 



You must expect numerous and heavy rains this month, 
but on porous soils, after the twelfth or fifteenth,, it will be 
dry enough to plow. 

This is the proper time for projecting the crop of another 
year, obtaining hands, fixing them in coihfortable quarters, 
and purchasing additional mules and other stock. 

Cut and haul a supply of wood. Haul out your cotton 
seed and other manures, and spread them on the fields. 
Decide as to rotation of crops ; where you will have your 
cotton, where your corn, oats, and sweet potatoes. 

After the middle of the month, whenever it is dry enough, 
let the two-horse plows be throwing up beds for the cot- 
ton rows. Four feet apart on hill lands, and five or five 
and a half in the swamp, is the rule. 

Cotton that stands thick, will pi'oduce as many open bolls 
before frost as that which is thinner, and it is the open 
bolls before frost that will give you the best cotton. 

Get in a few acres of oats. 



COTTON CULTUEE. 61 



The first plowing contiuued briskly. Corn lands plowed 
tlioroughly, and oats sowed. Have a large kitchen garden, 
raise plenty of cahbages, sugar beets, carrots, parsnips, 
onions, okra, and melons, 

A cotton soil and climate are exactly suited to melons, 
and it will pay to put an acre in watermelons and can- 
telopes. 

This is a proper time for working plantation roads, filling 
up the washes, and laying off circle ditches on hill lands. 
By circle ditching and circle plowing, you can cultivate a 
soil, that is as mellow as an ash hea^i, on a side hill, and 
yet keep it from washing away. 

Observation will teach you what fill a ditch may have, 
and not wash. It is different in different soils. A fall of 
an inch in ten feet is the rule that some follow. 

If the season is early and dry, you can plant in the last 
of March. It is desirable to get your corn planting out of 
the way before you commence on cotton. 

APRIL. 

A busy month this for the cotton planter. He must 
make every edge cut, particularly if he has grassy fields. 
The first of the month will be taken up wdth cotton plant- 
ing. You cannot be too thorough or particular in getting 
in your seed. Aim to have mellow beds, and straight, 
even rows. Run a fine-toothed harrow over the tops of 
your beds, and fasten on the cross-piece, so as to project 
behind the middle of the harrow, a triangular piece of 
wood, with the edge down, so as to make a clean, even 
trench for your seed, Avhich should be soaked in a fertiliz- 
ing mixture a day or tw^o, and rolled, while damp, in ashes 
and plaster. 

Drop your seeds at intervals of an inch or two in the 
bottom of the little trench, and cover with a board attached 
to a light plow, notched so as to Gt the curve of the bed. 



62 COTTOX CULTUEE. 

As soon as your cotton is jjlanted, go over your corn 
for the first time, and turn immediately back to the cotton 
field to give it the first working. 

Try the Shanghai plow for the first working. Some 
planters speak very highly of it. You may, perhaps, do 
almost as well by taking out the three forward hoes of 
your cultivator, and passing it along above the young 
plants and astride of the row. 

Let the hoes follow the plows, cutting away two breadths 
of a common hoe, thus leaving a clump of plants at inter- 
vals of about a foot and a half. In some cases, where your 
plants are vigorous, and the season pushes, it may do very 
well to cut away to a stand at once, or, at least, so as to 
leave but two thrifty plants in a place. At all events, 
keej) down the grass. If you have to go over your crop 
once in a week, get the grass under now, and it will not 
give you much trouble during the rest of the season. 



Another crowding month on a cotton farm. Both crops, 
your corn and your cotton, demand attention, and neglect 
now can never be made up. 

During the first half of May you will give the cotton its 
most thorough working. Let the plows keep a brisk pace 
if they have much ground to go over. They should go 
around the first time moulding the rows, and be followed 
close by the hoes, to uncover the plants that have been 
buried by the plow running too near. Then the middles 
should be broken out, and the crop left perfectly clean, 
cut out to a permanent stand, and the ground all stirred. 

After running two furrows to each row, so the hoes can 
go over the crop, it may be advisable to put the plows into 
the corn field, and let them go through that before break- 
ing out the middles of the cotton. Some time must be 
found also for the potato patch. Work them clean and 



COTTON CULTURE. 63 

hill up thorouglily. Tlie vines will soon monopolize the 
surfixce, and exclude the weeds and grass. 

Towards the last of the month, get the plows back into 
the cotton. The sweep is probably the best implement to 
put into the field now. Any blacksmith can convert a 
common bull-tongue or a scooter plow into a sweep or 
eagle, by putting a wing to the lower part of the coulter, 
two or three inches from the point. A good plowman can 
carry his sweep within two inches of the line of plants 
without killing any. This greatly abridges the labor of 
the hoe hands. 



In this month the cultivation of cotton must vary some- 
what with the season and the soil. 

If you are planting on rolling or hilly land, and the 
season is dry, throw up a considerable furrow from the 
middle to the roots of the plant. On bottom laud this is 
unnecessary, for cotton on alluvial soil seldom suffers much 
from drouth. On the other hand, on flat lands, if the 
season is wet, you will have to throw up a ridge to pre- 
vent water from settling around the roots. 

The plows continue to run actively all this month, both 
in corn and cotton. It is well to accustom the mules and 
horses to a rapid walk between the rows. Use an animal 
but half of these long hot days. Commence early, and give 
a long nooning. Hold each plowman responsible for the 
condition of his mule, and allow a bonus or extra wages 
to the one that brings his animal out of the croj) in the 
best condition. 

Look well after the comfort of man and beast these 
blazing days, Avhen the thermometer stands at 120° in the 
field. Give the hands plenty of drink, but let it be acid- 
ulated, such as vinegar and water, or buttermilk, some- 
what diluted. 



64 COTTON CULTURE. 



You will go over your corn for the last time this month, 
if the season is dry. A stirring of the soil between the 
rows will help it to resist the effect of the intense heat, 
and prevent the lower leaves from " firing." Cotton needs 
another plowing, but if the previous cultivation has been 
thorough, the crop can be laid by the last of this month. 

As soon as your corn is " past roasting ear," pull fodder. 
As this work is by no means easy, and comes in the height 
of midsummer heat, some of the hands are quite likely to 
injure themselves unless special care is exercised. 

Drenched as they are with perspiration, they must 
drink frequently, and the water should never be cold. If 
vinegar and a httle sugar is added, all the better. There 
is no use in pushing laborers now. A press of work is 
soon to come, and you do not want to start a set of jaded 
and half-sick hands to picking. 

Some have doubted the propriety of stripping the leaves 
from Indian corn before the ears are mature. You lose 
a little in the weight of shelled corn and in its fattening 
properties, but for the southern climate a more wholesome 
corn is produced in this way, than by allowing the whole 
plant to stand 'till dead ripe. It will not be so heating to 
animals, and the bread made from it is lighter and more 
palatable. 



The picking season is at hand. Store your dry fodder, 
and get ready to send every hand into the cotton field. 

About the middle of the month you will observe quite 
a number of the lower or ground bolls open. As soon as 
a picker can gather fifty pounds, the work of harvesting 
begins. It Avill continue three and a half or four months. 

This is the time of year to be on the watch against your 



COTTON CULTURE. 65 

two enemies, the cotton worm and the army worm. If 
they make an attack in force, your crojD Avill be swept 
away ahnost as soon as Jonah's gourd. The army worm 
is much less insidious in its advance than the cotton moth 
or cotton cateri^illar, and you can arrest the march of the 
devouring army by a narrow, sharp cut ditch carried all 
aronnd the place. If you hear of the advancing host 
from the south or south-west, lose no time in starting 
your double plows in on the side of your field which is 
threatened. Throw a furrow from the crop, and let the 
hoe and spade follow, clearing out and cutting down till 
you have a perpendicular wall of earth, from twelve to 
eighteen inches high, facing th« enemy. Feeble as this 
earthwork appears to be, it is enough to stop the march. 
As soon as the advance guard reaches your lands, how- 
ever, a strict watch must be kept, lest at some point they 
find a low place in the earthen wall or some means of 
scaling it. It may be well to keep the double plows at 
hand, in order to deepen and clear out the ditch as they 
come piling into it. 

The caterpillar, cotton worm or cotton moth, for each 
of these names is applied to the same animal, appears also 
in August. You will see a few pale brown millers or 
moths flitting over the cotton field. By watching, you 
may observe the insect selecting a leaf for her web or nest. 
She will generally discover the place of her eggs by cut- 
ting the midritf or largest fibre of the leaf, and bending it 
over so as to form a little shelter tent, so to speak, for her 
young. The eggs hatch in ten days, and the little worms 
begin at once to devour the plant upon Avhich they were 
born. They eat constantly, day and night, growing rap- 
idly to the length of about an inch and a quarter. The 
time for fighting this enemy is as soon as you see the first 
moth. They are clumsy and slow in their flight, so they 
can be struck down with little paddles and killed. As 
some will, of course, escape this attack, the planter should 



66 COTTON CULTURE. 

look carefully through the rows of his crop for the leaves 
on which the eggs have been laid. 

With a little practice, the eye becomes quick at detect- 
ing the leaves that have been cut and bent over. These 
should be carefully gleaned, put into the cotton bags, and 
bu.rned. 

Some have succeeded in protecting a crop by catching 
the moths in plates, half filled with a mixture of molasses, 
vinegar, and cobalt, and exposed at numerous points over 
the field. 

Every preventive and each mode of attacking the enemy 
should be employed. Some have destroyed a great num- 
ber of these pests by building small fires in diiferent parts 
of the field, into which they plunge and perish. Others 
plant white flags about the field, upon which it is thought 
the fly deposits its eggs. 

SEPTEMBEK. 

If your crop was rescued from thePdevourers, nothing 
now remains but to press the picking as actively as pos- 
sible. The best cotton is gathered in September and 
October. Provide every facility for y.our bauds, good bags 
A\itli open mouths, baskets, and a scale or balance that 
weighs rapidly. Give hot coffee in the morning, especially 
if you are on low land, encourage fast picking by corres- 
ponding wages, and manage to keep them out of the night 
au*. You can ill afiord to have hands out of the field now 
with chill and fever. 



The best month for picking. It is a remarkable set of 
hands that can average two hundred pounds all aroimd, 
yet, among a force of twenty pickers, some will always 
bring in more than that in open cotton. 



COTTON CULTURE, 67 

Keep the morale of your laborers at a high point. A 
sad heart makes the raotions slow. Hands will not pick 
any the worse the next day for having danced till ten or 
eleven o'clock the night before ; and, among Africans at 
least, the best dancer is likely to be the best picker. 

Unless your croj) is very large, so as to need every finger 
in your employ to pick it out, the best time for sorting the 
cotton is when it is first picked. Before November you 
Avill not have much inferior cotton. After frost and heavy 
rauas there will be many imperfect bolls that yield a 
crumpled or kinky staple, and much cotton will be beaten 
out of the pods by driving rains, and made muddy by 
earth dashed upon it, or sand driven into it. This can be 
cleaned so as to be but little inferior to choice cotton, but 
the two should not be mixed, as the trashy will lower the 
price of the clean with which the buyer finds it mixed. 

Many cotton growers have a " trasher," a simj^le ma- 
chine, driven by a band from the drum, which cleans the 
staple by whipping it against a series of pegs or teeth. 

Trashy and dirty cotton ought to be dried and trashed 
before being stored away for ginning. 

NOVEMBEE. 

As the season grows cool, the picking at night and 
morning is anything but pleasant. 

Nothing will be gained in the end by gathering in a 
cold and heavy dew. Let there be fires kindled at the 
baskets, and in every manner seek the comfort of the 
hands, for the staple which they are picking now is some- 
what inferior, and their encouragement is that the long 
pull of monotonous and wearisome labor is nearly over. 
If the market is favorable, ginning is begun this month, 
and often much earliei*. A good eighty saw gin will pick 
off less than a bale an hour, say eight bales in ten or twelve 
hours. But this rapid ginning generally damages the 
staple, and for that reason is not recommended. 



68 COTTON CULTURE. 

As a rule, it requires as many pickers as there are saws 
on a cylinder to keep a gin constantly running. Thus 
seventy-five or eighty pickers will bring in at night as 
mucli as the gin will run out the next day. But it is al- 
ways better to let the cotton remain in the seed a month 
or more after being picked. The staple is of better color 
and weight. 

DECEMBER. 

By the middle of this mouth, the cotton is mostly picked. 
Now the corn and potatoes are gathered, and teams are 
active in hauling the crop to a market or shipping point. 
The baling is best done on damp or rainy days, as heat 
and dryness tend to extract the oil from the fibre. In 
some parts of the cotton region, it is advisable to put a 
small force to pulling up and burning the stalks as soon 
as picked, preparatory to another crop. 



PART II. 



DETAILS, DIFFICULTIES, IMPROVEMENTS, AND 

STATISTICS RELATING TO COTTON GROWING IN 

THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER I. 

QUALITY, EXTENT, AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COTTON 
LANDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

That region of the United States "where cotton is a prof- 
itable crop, is determined somewhat by soil, but much 
more by the intensity of summer heat, and the length of 
the growing season. Tlie extremes of the cotton belt mny 
be said, in a general Avay, to be the territory included be- 
tween the thirtieth and fortieth degrees of north latitude. 
In other words, cotton can be produced with various 
degrees of profit throughout the region bounded on the 
north by a line passing through Philadelphia, on the 
south, by a line passing a little south of New Orleans, and 
on the west, by a line passing through San Antonio. This 
is the limit of the possibilities. Not more than one-half, 
and that the lower half of this teri'itory, can properly be 
said to be siiited to the growth of cotton. 

An east and west line passing through Memphis divides 
the region where cotton growing is materially crippled by 
69 



70 COTTOX CULTUKE. 

the shortness of the season, from that in which the main 
difficulty to be contended with is soil, not climate. When 
the price of cotton is from ten to fifteen cents, there are 
parts of the valley of the lower Tennessee, a region between 
the Tennessee and the Mississippi, of which Jackson is the 
center, some bottom lands in the northern parts of Arkan- 
sas and in the southern part of Missouri, and a limited 
area in North Carolina, M^here cotton, at those prices, is a 
profitable crop. 

But the Cotton States, properly speaking, are South 
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, the northern part of Florida, 
Mississippi, the northern half of Louisiana, the southern 
half of Arkansas, and the eastern half of Texas, Within 
these limits, the question for the cotton grower is one of 
soil. He requires to know what parts of this large region 
afford lands sufficiently rich for cultivation, which are least 
exhausted, and what river bottoms are so raised, or pro- 
tected from overflow as to be safe for locating a planta- 
tion upon them. 

Beginning with the western limit of the region above 
described, let us move eastward towards the Atlantic 
States, considering the cotton growing qualities of each 
of the States above mentioned. 



The coast of Texas for fifty or sixty miles north-west 
fi'om the tide-water line is low and flat. The soil is deep, 
rich, and black, suited to sugar cane as well as cotton. 

But drainage is difficult, and much of this low surface 
is liable to be invaded by sea-water at high tides. If 
leveed from the sea, and ditched, it j)roduces abundant 
crops, and enjoying, as it does, a sea climate, is, on that 
account, well adapted to the growth of Sea Island cotton. 
Geologically, all the coast of Texas, and the soil for a hun- 
dred and fifty or two hundred miles inland, is alluvial, 
being formed by the deposit of detritus of old rivers which 



COTTOX CULTURE, 71 

-washed down the debris of secondary rocks. The bed 
thus formed was once under salt water, but by gradual 
upheaval, has been lifted to a moderate elevation. Thus, 
through a wide belt, Texas affords the advantages of an 
alluvial soil without the dangers of overflow, and free 
from the miasms of river bottoms. 

While tliis descrij)tion applies generally to the south- 
eastern half of the State, it should be stated that the 
extreme flatness of some of the prairies renders them unfit 
for tillage, and the bottom lands of the Guadalupe, Colo- 
rado, Brazos, and Trinity, especially the two latter, are 
subject to spring overflow. Yet after subtracting the flat 
prairie, and those overflowed bottoms which cannot easily 
be protected by levees, there remains a vast breadth of 
well-nigli virgin soil in this State admirably adapted to the 
production of a very fine staple of cotton. 

Throughout this region, to which should be added the 
superior cotton lands near Red River, on the north-eastern 
border, the average yield per acre is seven hundred and 
fifty pounds of cotton in the seed, or about three-quarters 
of a bale of ginned cotton, which is more than double the 
average yield of either Tennessee or South Carolina. 

As an unbroken body or strip of cotton land, probably 
the valley of the Brazos is not surpassed on the American 
continent. But a small part of it has yet been brought 
under the plow. The bottom is, on an average, includ- 
ing the second bottom which is fully as fertile as the imme- 
diate bank, five miles wide, and between three and four 
hundred miles long. Here are included a million of acres, 
almost every square rood of which can be plowed, and all 
capable of producing for a long series of years two bales 
to the acre. Thus two-thirds of the largest of American 
cotton crops might be grown in this valley. 

Barely less productive than this bottom is a wide, but 
irregular body of lands, lying between the rivers, and 
known as the black rolling prairie. The dip of these sur- 



73 COTTON CULTURE. 

faces is sufficient to give good drainage, yet not enough to 
produce washing. The soil is deep, mellow, and warm, 
and abounds in many places in small, white shells, showing 
at once detritus and sea-water action. 

The diseases and enemies of the cotton plant have rarely 
shown themselves on these lands. They are easy of culti- 
vation, and not remote from market, though less accessible 
than those of the Brazos and Trinity bottoms. At a low 
calculation, there are a million of acres of this description, 
east of the region of drought, as yet uncultivated, and held 
at moderate rates. 

Then the bottoms of the Guadalupe, the Colorado, the 
Trinity, and the Red River lands, comprise another de- 
scription of cotton soil, in some parts superior, and in 
others a little inferior to the black prairies. On the Gua- 
dalupe lands, it is indeed remarkable how little rain gives 
a crop. 

I have seen six hundred and seven hundred pounds of 
ginned cotton per acre produced, without a drop of rain 
on the plants after they were six inches high. The quality 
of the staple thus grown is superior to that of a wet season ; 
but corn is nearly an impossible crop under such circum- 
stances. The Colorado River may be said to divide those 
parts of Texas that are sufficiently moist from those which 
suffiir almost every summer from long droughts. 

The eastern part of Texas, that is, the lands drained 
west into the Trinity, and east into the Sabine, is gener- 
ally poor, covered to a great extent by the southern pine. 
Yet one-third, perhaps, of this surface, where the pine is 
considerably interspersed with oak, poplar, and magnolia, 
will produce from three to four hundred pounds of lint 
cotton per acre. 

The northern and western parts of Texas, comprising 
probably two-thirds or three-fourths of the two hundred 
and thirty-seven thousand square miles in the whole State, 
are grazing and grain growing lands ; but one-fourth of the 



COTTON CULTURE. 73 

State, an area equal to the -whole of Georgia, is admirably 
adapted to cotton, and cajDable, with due allowance for 
grazing land and edible crops, of yielding a larger supply 
of cotton than the whole South ever produced in one year. 

LOUISIANA AND ARKANSAS. 

Red River may be said, in a general way, to divide this 
State into two distinct regions, one adapted to the raising 
of cotton, the other of sugar. The part east of the Missis- 
sippi River, and south of the line of the State of Missis- 
sippi, commonly called the Florida parishes, having for- 
merly made a part of West Florida, is to a great extent 
composed of cotton counties, but the principal part of the 
cotton crop of Louisiana, between two hundred thousand 
and three hundred thousand bales, grows in the Red River 
bottoms above Alexandria, and in the north-eastern corner 
of the State, a triangular extent of inexhaustibly fertile 
land, washed on the east by the Mississippi, and on the 
west by the Washita, and penetrated by the Tensas, the 
Little Tensas, Bayou Macon, and Bayou Boeuf. 

This region is wholly alluvial, two hundred miles in 
length, with an average width of about forty miles, thus 
giving over five million acres, not more than one-tenth of 
which is incapable of cultivation. A greater part of it is, 
however, subject to overflow^, the waters of the Mississippi 
being kept ffom it during several months of every year by 
high embankments, which are liable at any time, and at 
almost any point, to burst. 

In a favorable season, these lands produce a bale and a 
half to the acre, but this region, called " the swamj) " of 
Louisiana, is malarious, and, in winter, acute diseases of 
the lungs are very frequent, so that when the losses by 
overflow, and the disadvantages of sickness and almost 
impassable roads in winter, are taken into account, it may 
be doubted whether cotton growing is not, on the whole, 
4 



74 COTTOJf CULTURE. 

less profitable here than in the hill lands, where the aver- 
age production is considerably less than a bale to the acre. 

It will be observed that the Washita and its tributaries 
extend for a hundred miles or more into the southern part 
of Arkansas. This part of the State, embracing, perhaps, 
half of what lies south of the Arkansas River, is an excel- 
lent cotton region, not liable to overflow, except imme- 
diately on the Mississippi, and having a climate precisely 
adapted to the growth of the great staple. In the south- 
Avest corner of Arkansas, the lands on Red River, and the 
streams Avhich empty into it, are also excellent as cotton 
lands. 

They are, however, very imperfectly developed, never 
having produced more than one-tenth of the amount they 
are capable of producing. Their average production, the 
same with that of the Louisiana lands, is seven hundred 
pounds per acre of seed cotton. 

This part of the State has an unenviable reputation with 
regard to health, but this diflliculty may be greatly modi- 
fied, and, perhaps, wholly removed, when the land is more 
extensively cleared, and reduced to cultivation. 

Although most of the cotton of Louisiana and of Arkan- 
sas grows in the district bounded north by the Arkansas, 
and south by the Red, including the bottom lands of those 
streams, there is quite a breadth of land suitable to this 
crop on the south side of the Red. In the parish imme- 
diately south of this river, Pointe Coupee, which extends 
from the Mississippi to the Atchafelaya, the soil, one of 
great fertility, is about equally adapted to cotton or sugar, 
but the former is replacing the latter on a great number 
of farms. Cotton is raised nearly down to New Orleans, 
but the tendency is to a rank growth of the plant, and 
late development of the bolls. 

From the result of some experiments made a few years 
ago on the Houmas lands, and communicated to the author 
by their former owner, Hon. John S. Preston, of South 



COTTON CULTURE. 75 

Carolina, there is reason to suppose tliat a variety of black 
seed cotton might grow well on the heavy black lands of 
Southern Louisiana. 

They have always been considered as sugar soils only, 
but Mr. Preston planted a considerable breadth of land 
near Donaldsonville with " Main " cotton seed, a variety 
finer than any green seed, but not equal to the genuine 
Sea Island. He found that in proportion as he receded 
from the rivei* bank the plant flourished. The plants near 
the front were feeble, but in the rows that extended back 
nearly to the timber, a distance of from two to three 
miles, they grew better and better as the distance from 
the front increased. 

The difference may be owing to greater freshness or 
more moisture in the land. If the sugar interests of 
Loixisiana decline, as the j^rospect now is, it may prove a 
matter of great importance to know that black seed cot- 
ton will grow well on those strong lands. Some experi- 
ments are being made this year, (1867,) on these and sim- 
ilar soils in Texas with black seed cotton from Egypt, with 
what result remains as yet to be seen. 

N'orth of the Ai-kansas River, there is a territory re- 
sembling in its general features the cotton fields of Louis- 
iana. It is drained by the White, the Saint Francis, and 
the Big Black, and produces several thousand bales of cot- 
ton, but is not likely to become remarkable for its growth 
of this staple. 

MISSISSIPPI. 

Coming now to that half of the cotton belt which lies 
east of the Mississippi River, we have the great cotton pro- 
ducing State, which takes its name from the river that 
constitutes its western boundary. And here, immediately 
east of the river, and north of Yicksburg, we find a terri- 
tory whose general shape is that of an ellipse, Vicksburg 
being at the lower extremity, and Memphis at the upper, 



76 COTTON CULTURE. 

which is wholly alluvial, intersected by numerous streams, 
and of enormous productive power. 

The Yazoo is its eastern limit, and Deer Creek, Yala- 
buslm, and its tributaries, the Sunflower, Coldwater, and 
Tallahatchie Rivers, permeate it in various directions. 
About two hundred miles in length, with an average width 
of twenty-five miles, it comprises over three million acres 
of soil, which is literally exhaustless, and situated in the 
very centre of the cotton belt. 

The crop is more certain here than in any other part of 
the Mississippi Valley. It is, however, like the correspond- 
ing section in Louisiana and Arkansas, west of the river, 
subject to overflow, but does not require protection by 
such enormous and extensive levees as those which guard 
the lands on the west side of the river. 

Leaving now this great alluvion, we come to a different 
class of cotton lands from any on the west side of the great 
river. The hills or uplands of this State are of far greater 
breadth than the submerged or alluvial lands, and some 
parts of the State are covered with almost unbroken 
forests of the gouthern pine. This is true of the fifteen 
counties that lie in the south-east coi-ner. Placing these 
out of the account, there remains a range of counties ex- 
tending diagonally across the State from Woodville to 
Holly Springs, in all of which cotton is grown in large 
quantities. 

These uplands are, in their natural state, covered with 
a growth of white oak, red oak, beech, poplar, magnolia, 
with pine interspersed. The soil is very soft and friable, 
so that the surfiice, unless plowed with care, is soon ruined 
and cut to pieces by the washing of the winter rains. 

When properly cared for, however, they deteriorate 
very slowly in cotton culture, many of them being now 
fully as valuable as they were from thirty to fifty years 
ago, when they were first opened. The average crop of 
this class of lands in Mississippi is about half a bale of 



COTTON CULTUKE. 77 

ginned cotton to the acre. The average product per acre 
throughout the State, according to the census of 1850, is 
six hundred and fifty pounds. 

Along the north-eastern limit of the State are lands 
which drain into the Tombigbee. This is an excellent 
cotton country, the climate being exactly suited to the 
plant, and the soil remarkably soft and light. 



This State and Mississippi are remarkably similar in 
situation, and in the amount and quality of cotton which 
they j^roduce. Both extend to the Gulf on the south; 
both are bounded on the north by Tennessee ; both have a 
large extent of poor land occupying the south eastern angle 
of their territory. The north-eastern part of Alabama is 
rough and unproductive, except in a few valleys of limited 
extent, but on the northern border is the most southern 
curve of the Tennessee River, Avhose valley affords much 
good, though not first-class, cotton land. 

As in Louisiana, the rich cotton lands of Alabama are 
confined to an angle of the State. The bottoms of the 
Tombigbee and Alabama, and the irregularly shaped tri- 
angle that lies between the lower parts of these streams, 
send by far the greater part of the cotton of Alabama to 
market. With the exception of the limited region around 
Huntsville and Tuscumbia, in the northern part, there is 
not a great deal grown north of the thirty-third degree of 
north latitude, or the line which, continued west, divides 
Louisiana from Arkansas. The tenth degree west of 
Washington, which corresponds nearly with a line con- 
necting Decatur and Pensacola, divides the State about 
equally, east and west. The south-western quarter of Ala- 
bama as thus bisected in each direction, is equalled only 
by the rich black prairies of Texas as cotton soil. 

The alluvions of the rivers are, of course very rich and 



78 COTTOX CULTUKE. 

strong. In some cases they are subject to overflow, and 
in others the drainage is defective, especially on the Tom- 
bigbee. 

But near the centre of the State is a tract of land extend- 
ing about forty miles in each direction, giving something 
like sixteen hundred square miles, or more than a million 
acres, which, all things considered, is the best cotton land 
in America, and probably in the world. From a large 
county of that name these are frequently called the Marengo 
lands. 

The soil is deep, rich, and black, covered, in its natural 
state, with a dense growth of cane, rolling so as to give 
sufficient drainage, yet never steep enough to wash. Every 
square foot is capable of culture. The Tombigbee on the 
west, and the Alabama on the south-east, both navigable 
the greater part of the year, give 'prompt and cheap access 
to Mobile, the export town. Entirely above overflow, and 
remote from lakes and marshes, it is a much healthier re- 
gion than the cotton fields of the lower Mississippi. The 
most of this favored section lies between the thirty-second 
and thirty-third degrees of latitude, the very centre of 
the cotton belt, where the length of the season is exact- 
ly adapted to cotton. More of these cane lands of Ala- 
bama, in proportion to the whole area, are in cultivation 
than is the case with the other cotton fields on the Missis- 
sippi and west of it, which have been described. They 
produce ahvays a bale, and, in the best seasons, a bale and 
a half to the acre. The rains of winter convert the roads 
into quagmires, but in summer they become hard and 
glossy, as firm as a floor, and entirely free from dust. 

The productive capacity of this part of Alabama alone 
cannot be much less than three-fourths of the whole num- 
ber of acres, for, allowing two acres in cotton for one in 
corn, these cane lands would yield seven hundred and fifty 
thousand bales. 

The bottoms of the Alabama, near Montgomery and 



COTTON CULTUKE. 71) 

Wetumpka, are wide and very productive, but farther 
north, the good cotton lands decrease in amount, theiie 
being in this part of the State many pine and black oak 
barrens, where half a bale per acre is a good yield ; but 
the valley of the Coosa is good land, as far up as Rome, in 
Georgia. 



This State is naturally divided into three parts or sec- 
tions; southern Georgia, middle, and northern Georgia, 
or the Cherokee lands, as they are familiarly called. A 
line drawn westward from Charleston or from Beaufort 
separates the most of the flat pine barrens from the better 
parts of the State, which lie north of such a line. The 
Cherokee lands may be described, in a general way, as 
that part of the State lying north of the thirty-fourth par- 
allel, or an east and west line passing through Marietta. 

These northern lands, being situated among the spurs 
and foot-hills of the Alleghanies, are high and rough, well 
adapted to grazing, corn, and wheat, and but ill suited to 
the production of the great southern staple, which flour- 
ishes best on lands that are unsuitable for wheat. 

The climate of southern Georgia is, of course, well 
adapted to cotton, but the difiiculty is with the soil. In 
the valleys of the Chattahoochie, the Flint, and on the 
Avaters of the Altamaha, there are many rich bottoms, but 
rice is found to be a more profitable crop on many of these 
lands. The region about Columbus, however, is a good 
cotton soil, and a large amount is raised in that part of the 
State. The good and the poor lands of Georgia are more 
mixed than in any of the south-western or new States, but 
in a general way, the middle counties of Georgia are the 
cotton counties. The natural growth on these lands is 
white and red oak, chestnut, hickory, poplar, sycamore on 
the water courses, with pine on the poorer lands, and black 
jacks on the barren hUls. 



80 COTTOX CULTtTEE, 

Many of these lands are of a very red color, and wash 
quite easily. As they have been many years in cultiva- 
tion, and much abused, particularly in the mode of plow- 
ing, they are not at present remarkably productive. The 
average yield is something like two-thii'ds of a bale to the 
acre. Cotton planting in Georgia has never been con- 
ducted with the same exclusive devotion to the growing 
of a single staple, as characterizes planting in the south- 
west. 

The farmer in Georgia is in the habit of raising wheat, 
oats, potatoes, and sometimes tobacco and hemp, cotton 
being only one of his crops. There is not a great deal of 
undeveloped cotton land in Georgia. A cai*eful system of 
plowing, with proj^er rotation, may keep the annual pro- 
duction of this staj^le from falling off. 

SOUTH CxVKOLINA. 

The surface of this State, like that of North Carolina, 
its northern boundary, and Georgia, its western, is divided 
into three parts or species of land, the low lands, the 
middle counties, and the mountains. The coast, for some- 
thing more than a hundred miles back from the water line, 
including the counties of Beaufort, Colleton, Charleston, 
Georgetown, Horry, Marion, Williamsburg, a part of 
Orangeburg and Barnwell, is low, swampy, fertile, and 
sickly. On the bottoms of the Edisto, the Santee, the 
Great and Little Pedee, and Lynch's Creek, rice is the 
principal crop. The lower corner of the irregular triangle 
which forms the State of South Carolina, or, in other words, 
that part of the State which lies south of the line connect- 
ing Augusta and Georgetown, affords m many places a 
soil and climate admirably adapted to the black seed or 
Sea Island cotton. 

Edisto Island, south of Charleston, is the best locality 
in the United States for this variety of cotton. It is pro- 
duced as far up the Savannah River as Barnwell district. 



COTTON CULTURE. 81 

The region lying directly north of Barnwell and Charles- 
ton, that is, the counties of Kershaw, Sumter, Darlington, 
Chesterfield, Fairfield, Edgefield, and two or three others 
still farther towards the mountains, is admirably adapted, 
as respects climate, to the production of the ordinary green 
seed staple, but only small portions of the surface present 
a superior soil. 

' Like the corresponding cotton counties of Georgia, these 
South Carolina lands are by no means uniform in their 
appearance or value. The bottoms of the Savannah, Salu- 
da, Congaree, Wateree, *Catawba, and Lynch's Creek are, 
like all other alluvions, remarkably fertile and productive. 
But between these streams there are extensive tracts on 
which hardly anything grows but the southern pine, and 
in those counties adjacent to Georgia there is much red 
land, as it is called, which originally was of fine produc- 
tive power, but by injudicious cropping, and by washing, 
to which the soil is very liable, its value has greatly de- 
teriorated. Much of this region has been in cultivation 
for nearly a hundred years, but the bottom lands still yield 
a bale to the acre, and the average throughout the State, 
in a favorable season, is three hundred and twenty pounds. 
In the upper counties, near the Blue Ridge, neither the 
soil nor climate is well adapted to cotton, this region being 
devoted principally to grain growing and stock raising. 

Notwithstanding the length of time for which the State 
has been settled, there remains a very considerable breadth 
of undeveloped land, capable of producing three hundred 
pounds and over per acre. 

NOKTII CAROLINA AND TENNESSEE. 

There is but a moderate extent of land in either of these 
States adapted to cotton. The river bottoms above Wil- 
mington, and some of the midland counties of North Caro- 
lina, produce quite well. But m those parts where the 
climate suits cotton, the soil is too poor to pay for cultiva- 
4* 



82 COTTON CULTURE. 

tion. The average throughout the State is about two 
hundi'ed pounds per acre, but there is very little to attract 
or retain planting enterprise on these lands, when such re- 
gions as are above described lie open and inviting in the 
Southwest, 

Passing west of the mountains, one descends the west- 
ern slope of the Cumberland range, and approaches to 
within thirty miles of Kashville before a cotton soil is 
reached. Near tlie Alabama line, the climate and soil are 
both quite favorable, and w-est of the Tennessee, near 
Memphis, and around Jackson aifd Paris, it is the staple 
production. The Tennessee lands that yield over half a 
bale per acre are not extensive. In Middle Tennessee one 
hundred and fifty pounds per acre is fair cropping ; but the 
bottoms of the Mississippi and the Tennessee have not 
been found sufficiently fertile to bring the general average 
of the State up to three hundred pounds, less thaa half 
of the average Texas crop. 

COTTOJS" NORTH OF 38°. 

The successful cultivation of cotton depends on the 
length of the season more than any one thing. It requires 
four months from planting to the opening of the ground 
bolls. Then, in order to raise anything like a full crop, 
two and a half or three months more are needed for pick- 
ing it out. In the best part of the cotton belt the chief 
dates in the calendar are as follows : 

Planting, about the first of April, 

First bloom, early in June. 

First open boll, early in August. 

Picking commenced, middle of August. 

First killing frost, first to middle of November. 

Crop gathered, middle of December. 

The efiects of shortening the season, as thus allotted, 
are, in the first place, to give less time for maturing cotton 
before frost, and to make the cotton which is forced open 



corrox culture. 83 

by frost, not by natural maturity of the boll, inferior in 
staple as well as diminished in bulk. 

Suppose, for instance, cotton is planted on the first of 
May, in a climate where corn is planted about that time. 
It has May, June, July, and August to grow in. 

If the heat of those months is as great as in Memphis, 
for instance, the plant will begin to open in September, 
and there may be two weeks or more when fifty pounds 
per day will be picked by each hand. Bat weather cool 
enough to stop the growing of the plant, must come in 
October, and, perhaps, not later than the middle of that 
month, a frost which will force open the immature bolls. 
Then follows a second picking of short, kinky cotton, 
clinging to the inner surface of the pods. 

When cotton is from thirty to fifty cents a pound, this 
may pay. Two hundred pounds per acre may be pro- 
duced in this way. At thirty cents per pound, this would 
give sixty dollars as the income from one acre. Of wheat, 
at two dollars, it would require thirty bushels ; of corn, at 
fifty cents, one hundred and twenty bushels, to give the 
same result. 

The above supposition is the most favorable that can 
be expected north of 38°. In the spring of 1862, cotton 
seed Avas planted quite extensively in Maryland, Delaware, 
and in Southern Illinois. The fate of a large majority of 
these experiments may be summed up as follows : the 
plant grew well and looked green, but developed little 
or no cotton till frost, when quite a number of pods that 
were nearly mature oj^ened, and with cotton at fifty cents 
a pound and over, the result was moderately remunerative. 

In Delaware, where the sea air imparts greater mildness 
to the climate, quite good cotton is raised by forcing the- 
young plants in a rich bed on a sunny exposure, and trans- 
planting after the manner of tobacco. The southern ex- 
tremity of Illinois is less than fifty miles from Tennessee, 
where half a bale to the acre is produced, and in parts of 



COTTON CULTURE. 



Missouri, north of 38°, nearly as much has been grown in , 
a fortunate season. ' 



CHAPTER II. 

ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF COTTON. 

There are five small animals or insects that afflict, and 
sometimes wholly destroy, the cotton jDlant. These are 
the cotton louse, the cut worm, the cotton worm or moth, 
(for the worm is the offspring of the moth,) the army 




Fig. 14.— THE COTTON LOUSE. 

Description: a, young shoot of cotton plant, -with lico of natural size; 6, 
winged lice, magnified ; c, wingless lice, magnified. 

worm, and the boll worm. We are indebted to Prof. 
Townend Glover, of the Department of Agriculture at 
Washington, for the opportunity to copy from his original 



COTTON CULTURE. 85 

engravings the insects of which ciits are given in this 
chapter. 

Of the first, httle, perhnps, need be said. It is a small, 
gray louse, that attacks the plant when very young, and 
is generally found upon cotton that is unfavorably situated 
Avith regard to soil and moisture. 

Where there is a rich but wet bottom from which fine 
returns may be expected, and copious rains foUow the 
planting, the young sprouts will have a sickly and rusted 
look, and grow very slowly. Upon examination they will 
be found to be suffering from the louse. 

The first remedy, and that which is generally effectual, is 
careful culture. The earth should be loosened around the 
young plants, and, if the stand is very thick, it should be 
thinned. In many places these early troubles of the cot- 
ton plant result from an exhaustion of some of the constit- 
uents of the soil which cotton demands. 

Ashes and plaster are the best fertilizers of young cot- 
ton, and they would probably, if sprinkled dry upon the 
plant, destroy this little vermin. It is recommended, then, 
to dash or dust upon young cotton plants that are afflicted 
with the louse or the sore-shin, a mixture of dry wood 
ashes and plaster of Paris. Let it be done immediately 
after the first plowing, and before the hoes go over the 
crop, as this will give the hoe an opportunity to mingle 
the fertilizer with the soil around the roots of the plant. 

THE CUT-WOEM. 

This animal is about an inch long, of a dull, leaden hue. 
He burrows in the earth, is of a slow and torpid nature, 
and proves himself the enemy of the cotton plant almost 
as soon as it appears above ground. From that time for 
a month he shows his mischievous nature by biting the 
tender stalks just where they emerge from the ground. 
Generally he inflicts a severe wound, but quite often sev- 



8G 



COTTON CULTUEE. 



iillBM 



ers the stalk from the root entirely, and is for that reason 
very appropriately called the Cut-worm. 

Fortunately, there is a remedy for the depredations of 
this little reptile, which is easy of application, and in most 
cases a specific ; though where the crop is large, there may 
be a practical difficulty of obtaining a sufficient amount. 
Ashes or lime, or a combination of both these fertilizers, 
will at once hasten the growth of the plants that are un- 
injured, and render the soil so alkaline as to be quite dis- 
agreeable to the villain- 
ous little creatures. If 
they appear in all parts 
of the field, the planter 
should obtain enough 
wood ashes to mix with 
an equal quantity of 
lime, and thus make a 
dressing for the entire 
crop. Let a hand fol- 
low the plows, dashing the mixture near the roots. The 
hoes should follow and blend the fertilizer with the soil in 
such a way as to fit it for ready absorption, and at the 
same time make the immediate vicinity of the root dis- 
tasteful to the Cut-worm. 




Fig. 15. — CUT-WORM AND CHRYSALIS. 



THE COTTON MOTH. 



Sometime in August, when the planter, moving over his 
crop, begins to see, now and then, an open boll, he may 
notice here and there a gray, harmless looking moth or 
miller, early in the morning or in the evening, flitting 
about, in a careless way, over the plants. In a few days 
after, some worms will make their appearance in diflferent 
parts of the field, but their ravages will be inconsiderable, 
not sufficient to excite alarm except with the experienced 
observer. 



COTTON CULTURE. 87 

These worms Avill disappear in a few days, and the 
sanguine planter may be feeling quite sure of an abundant 
crop. His neighbors may be congratulating liim, and he 
may write a flushed letter to his factor in the city ; 

« * * " find as his crop puts forth 
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms 
And bears its blushing honors thick upon it : 
The third day comes " 

not a killing frost ; but a visitation that is just as fatal to 
the cotton-field and its crop, as though, in the midst of 
that glowing midsummer, the thermometer should sud- 
denly drop to the freezing point. 

When the cotton worm is fairly developed and begins 
his ravages in earnest, the planter has nothing to do but 
to sit by and witness the havoc. Then his labors are im- 
potent, for his enemy is unconquerable from the sheer vast- 
ness of his force. His numbers are in millions and tens 
of millions ; every plant, and almost every leaf, is swarm- 
ing with them, and in three days he may behold a magnifi- 
cent field, embracing perhaps a thousand acres, standing 
perfectly leafless, with no possibility of aflbrding more 
than an eighth or a tenth of a crop. 

This is an enemy that admits of no delay ; he must be 
met at the outset, and fought in every way by which 
there is any likelihood of conquering him. Those 
few harmless looking millers were the mothers of the first 
crop of worms. They produced a. large generation of 
millers, who, in time, became the parents of that enormous 
host of devourers. 

Let us describe this harmless looking fly a little more 
fully, so that the planter, to whom she is fortunately not 
familiar, may recognize her and give her a proper reception. 
An intelligent planter, who lives just above Port Hudson, 
in a region that has suffered very much fi'om the ravages 
of this worm, has given the following description, which 
will enable the inexperienced to become duly warned. 



COTTON CULTURE. 



" The cotton fly belongs to that numerons class of in- 
sects known to naturalists under the term of phalena, or 
moth tribe. The following are its specific characters, de- 
scribed without technicalities. The little horns jjrojecting 
from the head, terminating in a small point like a bristle, 
are of a drab color, half an inch long, and about half the 
length of the body, which measures nearly an inch ; the 
under surface of the breast is of a dull silvery white, gradu- 




TUE COTTON MOTK AND CATEKPILLAR. 



Description : a, young caterpillar after moulting its skin once ; b, full grown 
caterpillar ; c, moth in motion ; d, moth at rest. 

ally terminating on the belly and wings in a color tending 
to russet. The ujDper surface of the wings and back varies 
somewhat in different individuals, but is generally of a 
changeable golden color, with rusty, zigzag lines ; the 
tips of the wings are bordered with a narrow strij) of pale 
pink color, and slightly notched. On the upper surface 
of the Avings there are two black sj)ots, one on each, 
about the middle of the widest part, or that towards the 
tail. The legs are white, the four posteriors very long 



COTTON CULTURE. 89 

when compared with the front ones, which are short and 
slender; the tail is simj^le, that is, undivided. The 
length of this insect is about an inch from head to tail, and 
the wings, when expanded, are of about the same width. 
To conclude, I will add, that the shape of this moth is 
very much that of an isosceles triangle, with the line 
forming the base bent in about a quarter of an inch. 
This peculiar figure is produced by the outer angle of the 
upper wings projecting beyond the inner angle," 

There are two general modes of attack ; one is to make 
war upon the moth itself and destroy as many as possible 
before they lay their eggs, about the last act of their lives, 
which extend through ten days. The other is to hunt out 
their little nests on the cotton leaves and destroy them. 
Though depending for its existence entirely upon cotton, 
which is a trojDical plant, this fly and the worm which is 
produced from it, does not seem to enjoy the hot sun. The 
worms sometimes perish in passing from one plant to an- 
other if the sun falls full upon them, and the moth is most 
likely to be found in the morning and the evening. 

Let the laborers go out very early, and start into the 
field in a line between the rows, each armed with a wide 
shingle cut away into a handle at one end. As they move 
forward, the moth rises from the leaves, and can be struck 
doAvn and killed with the paddle. 

Another method is to mix molasses, vinegar and cobalt 
in such projiortions as to make a sticky mass. Expose it 
in plates, each set on a board, which is nailed to the top 
of a stake. Some planters recommend that they be used 
as thickly as a plate to an acre. The moths are attracted 
to these plates, and falling in, become fastened and perish. 
Fires in the fields have been recommended as attracting 
and destroying this moth; white cotton flags, about a 
yard square, are also said to allure the insect, and serve as 
deposits for their eggs. 

It will not do to rely upon either of these modes, as 



90 COTTON CULTURE. 

some will escape the paddle and fail to get into the molas- 
ses. Fortunately the places where the mischievous crea- 
tures lay their eggs, are easily found. She cuts the mid-rib 
or main fibre of a leaf and bends it over, tying it down 
with a little thread, and beneath this shelter tent deposits 
the tiny atoms that, in ten days, become worms. They 
are protected also by a few threads laid over them. The 
cutting of the fibre and bending over of the leaf is a sure 
sign that immense mischief is hatching, and if in M^alking 
through a number of rows many such leaves are visible, 
the planter should start in his whole force with cotton 
bags, instructing them to hunt for all such leaves, pick 
tbera, bring them all out, and burn them. 

It is impossible to predict when and where this pest 
will appear, or whence it comes. It was not much known, 
at least in the Southwest, before 1820. Since then it has 
made irregular but quite too frequent visits, sometimes de- 
stroying thousands and tens of thousands of acres. The 
worm grows very rapidly, is of a brown color with dark 
stripes, about an inch long, and looks some like the apple 
tree worm that infests orchards. 

It generally occurs that a few appear and pass away 
some time in August, and then, if nothing is done, the at- 
tack in mass comes early in September. Where there is a 
large crop to be saved, it would be advisable to take those 
few plants upon Avhich Avorms first appear and entirely de- 
stroy them. By this mode, the second generation of mil- 
lers would be considerably reduced in number, if not 
quite exterminated. 

There is something remarkable in the way in which one 
of these countless generations provides its own destruc- 
tion witliout leaving even a representative. 

The first moths that visit a crop deposit their eggs and 
die. These eggs, in ten days, become little worms, which 
fall to eating tlie leaf on which they were hatched, and as 
they grow, consume the plant and pass to another. 



COTTON CULTURE. 91 

But age comes on apace with these ephemeral creatures ; 
the worm presently grows weary of devouring, selects a 
leaf, rolls himself in a little cocoon, and dies. From each 
of the cocoons, in a few days, a moth emerges, and these 
deposit the eggs from which the devouring host is hatch- 
ed. But their numbers and their voracity now become 
fatal to themselves as well as to the crop on which they 
feed. They consume the last leaf on the last plant of a 
field, leaving no place upon which their cocoons can be 
deposited. If, by accident, a few moths should be repro- 
duced, they would find no pasturage for the young to be 
hatched from their eggs, for the creature can eat nothing 
but cotton. When the growth of a field is consumed, 
they start away feebly for another mnge, but the first 
fence or ditch arrests them. The sun kills them, the birds 
pick them up, the wheels of a wagon, passing along a 
plantation road, crush millions of them ; so that in two 
days from the time the crop was devoured, not one of the 
voracious army may survive. They perish as utterly as 
the hosts of Pharoah, and the discomfited planter is re- 
ininded of 

" The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld 
From the safe shore, their floating carcasses 
And broken chariot-wheels." 

Those who have studied the habits and peculiarities of 
this insect, have arrived at the following conclusions : 

1st. — That nature has made no provision by which either 
the fly, the worm, the chrysalis, or the eggs, can survive 
the winter or exist for any length of time where the cotton 
plant is not a perennial. 

2d. — There is no regularity in their advent, no law that 
seems to prescribe the times of their re-appearing. 

3d. — Their progress is from north to south, and from 
west to east. That is, in the United States, the cotton of 
Louisiana and Texas is liable to suffer the first attack, and 
the fields of Arkansas, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, will 



92 



COTTOJJ CULTURE. 



be invaded, if at all, so late in the season that the ravages 
of the worm are only a little before frost, and but mod- 
erate injury is produced. 

4th. — It probably originates in Mexico and South Amer- 
ica, and from some unknown cause occasionally migrates 
northward. 

THE AKMY WORM. 



Without pausing now to speculate or sum up the ob- 
servations on the origin of this devourer, it will suffice to 



i^. 





THE AKMT-WOn:\I AND MOTH. 



Description : a, the caterpillar, or army-worm ; h, cocoon formed of particles 
of earth cemented together with silk or gum ; found under stones or in the earth ; 
c, chi-j-salis ; d, moth. The moths vary very much in color and markings. 

remark that he differs both in appearance and habits from 
the cotton worm or caterpillar described on tlie foregoing 
pages. Of voracity equal to that of the cotton worm, he 
is a general consumer of every green crop in the line of 



COTTON CULTURE. 93 

liis march. He is mucli longer lived than the caterpillar, 
and can travel much faster, overcoming greater obstacles 
in his path. He resembles the cotton worm in coming 
from the South northward, and in the countless myriads 
with which he invades a crop. 

The Army-worm is not so subtle or difficult an enemy 
as the former. The force advances by regular marches 
from one field to another, and does not send out breeders 
in the form of a moth to deposit eggs throughout a field. 
The planter may hear of his advance from afar, and have 
a number of days or weeks to prepare a suitable reception 
for the enemy. 

The most eftective obstacle that can be interposed in the 
path of the Army-worm is a clean cut ditch, of moderate 
depth, but with smooth, perpendicular faces. As a precau- 
tionary measui-e, many planters cut such a ditch all around 
their place, or at least ou the southern and western expo- 
sure. But the washing of winter rains and the growth 
of weeds and bushes will remove the earth from the sides, 
or bridge over the ditch so as to make it useless without 
prompt working, Wlienever there is any likelihood that 
a plantation lies in the path of such an army, let the plows 
be started on the side of the field in the direction of the 
enemy, and throw out a wide furrow from the field; The 
plow should go two or three times over the same ground, 
and be followed by hoes and spades, euttiiig down the 
ditch a foot or eighteen inches deep, care being exercised 
to make at least the inner wall or face quite perpendicular 
and smooth. It will sometimes happen that the southern 
or western extremity of a field is invaded before the 
farmer or planter has had sufficient warning to make 
ready for them. In that case let him take a lesson of de- 
cisive fire engineers, when laboring to stay a conflagration, 
which is spreading before the wind in a populous city. 

With a proper estimate of the rate of advance of the 
enormous horde, let him select a path, and send a force to 



94 COTTON CULTURE, 

cut down and throw towards the army two or three rows 
of cotton. Then let the plows, hoes and spades, follow 
rapidly, and cut the ditch as soon as possible. Sometimes 
it may be necessary to keep the plows in constant motion 
in order to bury the advance guard and give time to com- 
plete the ditch. Another precaution, which many employ, 
is to scatter straw or dry sedge grass in the ditch and re- 
new it when burned, so as to keep a bed of hot cinders, 
or a line of fire in front of the threatened field. As the 
whole farm is in danger, as well as the cotton field, the 
Army- worm devouring corn, grass, gardens, and stacks of 
fodder that lie in his path, an attack of this character im- 
poses the most strenuous and constant activity on every 
one that can lift a finger in the contest. A patrol with 
the plow and spade, should be kept up along the line of 
the ditch. 

The Army-worm hardly needs a formal description. No 
other reptile moves, as he does, in such enormous force. 
He is of about the length of the little finger of a man, and 
nearly as thick, yellowish in color, with a single dark 
stripe along the back. He travels by bending up the back 
and drawing the last feet nearly up to the head, then 
throwing the head forward, thus measuring his length 
from one point to another. 

There appears to be no bird, but the blue jay, that will 
eat it. Hens and turkeys look upon it with curiosity or 
fear. 

THE boll-woem:. 

Unlike the caterpillar and the Army-worm, the Boll- 
worm is an annual pest of the cotton plant, hybernating 
in the ground, and commencing depredations as soon as 
the young forms begin to swell. He never destroys a 
crop as they do, but pierces three, four, or sometimes ten 
bolls, nearly or quite killing them, at length penetrat- 



COTTOX CULTURE. 95 

ing to the centre of a full grown boll, where he lies con- 
cealed till near the time of his transformation. 

The peculiarity of this worm is that his natural food 
is corn, which he always prefers, but will attack cotton if 
the other plant is not at hand. The moth w^hich pro- 
duces the worm is thus described by a planter in Jackson, 
Mississippi, who has evidently made the subject a study. 
" Of a pale yellow or shining ash color, length of body 
and wings an inch and one eighth, the -wings expanded 
two inches, the upper covering the lower. Below the cen- 
tre and near the border of the upper wings are two dark 
spots, with two or three indistinct ones on each upper 
wing ; end of the wing whitish, having a wavy dark band 
near the border. Throat a little convex, downy ; abdomen 
color of wings and downy ; proboscis folded spii-ally un- 
derneath, double, half an inch long; eyes large, clear 
yellowish-green. Six legs, antennae fusiform ; lies con- 
cealed in the day in fence corners and around stumjDS, 
flies only late in the evening and at night near the ground 
and rapidly." 

In the early part of July this moth pairs, and in four 
days lays about seven hundred and fifty eggs, soon after 
which it dies. 

These eggs are deposited on the silks of corn. In three 
days they hatch, and the young worms commence feeding 
on the green corn and the silk. Remaining here about 
two weeks, the worm then goes down into the ground to 
the depth of three inches, where it is transformed into a 
chrysalis of bright mahogany color and conical shape, and 
about an inch in length. In sixteen days, the moth above 
described bursts from the crysalis. The moth of the sec- 
ond generation finds, at this time of the year, little or no 
corn in the silk, in the cotton latitudes, and in the ab- 
sence of its favorite plant, lays its eggs on the top bud or 
on the ends of the side buds of the cotton plant. 

At the time of this deposit, if the weather is dry and 



96 



COTTON CULTUKE. 



the sun very hot, most of the eggs perish or become 
abortive. This is the reason why moist weather in Au- 
gust forebodes an attack of the Boll-worm. But no sea- 
son is so hot and dry but some Avorms will be hatched, 
and they commence to spread downward upon the plant 
and commit depredations on the boll. 




THE BOLL-WORM AND MOTH. 



Description : a, the young worm eating into the young boll ; b, full grown 
boll with hole eaten in the side, containing the Boll-worm after shedding skin 
the 4th time (19th day), with fcEces in boll ; c, moth in motion, and d, at rest. 

The Boll-worm is thus accurately described by Mr. 
Boddie, of Jackson. 

"The larva or caterpillar, when full grown, wall measure 
from an inch and a half to an inch and three quarters in 
length; it looks, to a superficial observer, brown, pale 
yellow and light green, though it has eight longitudinal 
streaks of white, brown and green, with one or two dots 
on each segment of the body along the lowest streak. It 
is smooth, shining, naked, with a few hairs on each seg- 
ment of the body. It is of a cylindrical form, tapering a 



COTTOX CULTUKE. 97 

little at each end; rather thick in proportion to its length, 
and has six legs in the fore part of its body, eight at the 
middle, and two near the tail. The bead is brown, 
smaller than the body, and oval in shape." 

After thus destroying from one to eight or ten bolls, 
the reptile descends and rolls himself into a cocoon or egg 
in which to get through the coming winter and spring ; 
for nature prepares no food for him during nine months of 
the year. The eggs or cocoons that hybernate, must be 
hidden in the neighborhood where the perfect insect lived, 
that is, in the cotton-fields or near them. It is doubtful 
whether any are hidden in the soil of the corn-field where 
there is cotton anywhere near ; for, after July, the animal en- 
tirely deserts corn, and goes to the cotton-fields. This is the 
case, at least, in the district where cotton flourishes best, 
for there the corn nearly all hardens late in July or early 
in August. Thus, in the northern part of the cotton belt, 
as Teimessee and North Carolina, the Boll-worm does lit- 
tle injury to cotton, for there he can find green corn till 
quite late in the season. 

Tliese preferences and habits of the Boll-worm under- 
stood, it is not so difiicult to prescribe a course of treat- 
ment that will rid the cotton-fields of his presence. 

There are two modes, and, so far as now known, but 
two modes of expelling this pest ; one by starving or kill- 
ing the moth, the' other by dra\\ing it to corn, its natural 
food, and keeping it there. 

Rotation of crops, managed so as to place the corn at 
some distance from the cotton, and throwing out the cot- 
ton-field to lie fallow a year, will destroy almost all the 
eggs of the Boll-worm. 

Suppose that a cotton farm is so for remote from others 
as to enable the planter to interpose a mile of wood land 
or pasturage between the cultivated fields of each. In 
September, the worms descend from the bolls and enter 
the ground. Let the ground lie follow, or be sowed with 



98 COTTO:S' CULTURE, 

oats the following year. In August, when the moth 
emerges from the ground, she may find neither corn nor 
cotton within a mile upon which to deposit eggs. Her 
flight is low, and her days are brief. The chances are, 
that she will perish before reaching either of the plants 
upon which she and her young feed. 

The exposure of a mixture of molasses and cobalt, witli 
a little vinegar, at the edge of a cotton field, and nearest 
the corn from which they migrate in the latter part of 
July and first of August, would probably attract and 
poison large numbers of them. By carefully noting the 
time of their moving ujDon the cotton, it might be effective 
to send out early in the morning the whole force with pad- 
dles or little hand-nets, to walk abreast down the rows 
next the corn, and catch and kill them as they fly up. 
Where corn and cotton are adjacent, the moth settles in 
the first rows of cotton as soon as she leaves the other 
plant, and by patroling these rows every morning, the 
most of the invaders might be destroyed. 

Another mode of overcoming the difficulty, would be to 
provide otlier and more attractive pasturage for them 
than the cotton boll. This could be done by having a 
small field of late corn next the cotton, that would be in 
silk as late as the latter part of August or the first of 
Sej)tember. The worm would not be likely to leave the 
corn for the cotton, xintil it was too late for him to work 
much injury. 

The same might perhaps be better attained by having 
rows of late corn, at intervals of twenty or thirty feet, 
through the cotton-field. This arrangement would be sure 
to draw all the moths, late in the season, to that field. 
Their cocoons would be buried in the soil, and by turning- 
out that field to rest for a year or two, and transferring 
the crops to some distance, the race of Boll-worms on that 
place might be exterminated. 

The diseases of cotton are not generally as destructive 



COTTOX CULTURE, 99 

as its enemies from the animal kingdom. Few crops are 
ever destroyed by anything but the caterpillar or the Ar- 
my-worm ; the " sore-shin," the red and bi'own rust, the 
dry rot, and the " cotton blues," damage a crop in various 
degrees, sometimes ruining a part of a field, or cutting off 
a number of bolls from each plant. 

As these diseases are easily recognized when they make 
their appearance, and as little can be done towards arrest- 
ing their progress when once developed in a crop, the at- 
tention of the planter should be turned mainly to the best 
means of j^roviding against their return. 

" An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." 

Rust, on the cotton stalk, is a small parasitical fungus 
or morbid growth, like lichens on trees, that springs up 
and materially checks the advancement of the plant by 
absorbing its juices. This fungus is produced by a dis- 
eased state of the plant, which may arise in various ways, 
but principally from a stagnation in its growth and in- 
sufficient supply of some of the elements of vegetable life. 
This stagnation may be produced by a singularly unfavor- 
able season, but it is more likely the consequence of an 
unwise system of cropping and bad husbandry. 

" Defective cultivation," says Professor Harper, of the 
University of Mississippi, " is the reason of ninety-nine 
cases of rust in cotton, while one is owing to an unfavor- 
able season." 

The " sore shin " is an affection of young cotton plants, 
very similar in appearance, and probably of the same 
origin as rust. 

"Rot, or gangrene, is a decay that attacks the top 
bolls. The seed and lint first rot and turn black ; then a 
sore or scab appears, resembling a puncture with a sharp 
instrument. This extends quite over the surface of the 
boll, and very frequently, after the disease has taken pos- 
session of the whole pod, it opens its prongs and repre- 
sents a thoroughly rotten state in all its parts." 



100 COTTOX CULTURE. 

This account of the disease "by an Alabama planter was 
given with a view of eliciting information on the subject. 
No careful examination of this affection has ever been 
made, or at least given to the world, and all that can be 
said by way of suggesting a cure is, that proper cultiva- 
tion, and an application of just those fertilizers Avhich 
cotton demands, will give partial, if not entire relief. 

Sometimes in July and August, when the cotton should 
be maturing rapidly, there will appear a change in the 
color of some parts of the field. Instead of a deep, 
healthy green, the plants take on a dull slate or leaden 
color ; the strength of the soil seems to exjDend itself on 
the woody fibre, not in maturing the bolls. 

The planter calls this " blue cotton." At other times, 
depending perhaps on a very wet season, the plant, after 
growing several feet, and bearing well, sheds all its fruit 
and becomes blue. 

As the remedies for all these diseases of the cotton 
plant may be summed up in one phrase, the improved and 
scientific culture of cotton, that wide field of inquiry and 
suggestion, raxxst be remitted to the succeeding chapter. 



CHAPTER III. 

IMPROVED AND SCIENTIFIC CULTURE OF COTTON. 

Though cotton is the great American staple of export, 
and has been proclaimed a King in the commercial w^orld, 
no leading crop of the country has been so little studied 
by scientific men, and none has been cultivated with so lit- 
tle reference to fundamental principles of agricultural 
chemistry. Three reasons may be assigned for this some- 
what surprising fact. 



COTTOyi CCLT-UEE. 101 

First. — The class of labor that has hitherto been ap- 
plied to cotton raising, was, in the last degree, rude and 
unskilled. Science and judgment on the part of a proprie- 
tor or agent is of little avail, unless the hand that does 
tlie work is guided by a thinking brain. 

Second. — On account of the opening of vast and still 
vaster regions blessed with a virgin and inexhaustible soil 
in the Southwest, which could be obtained at almost nomi- 
nal prices, there was no necessity for a system of culture 
in the older States that should keep the land in undimin- 
islied productiveness. Why should the cotton grower on 
the old red lands of the Carolinas and Georgia labor to 
redeem his acres from the effects of past errors, fill the 
deep gulches, prevent washing, exterminate the sedge 
grass and the stunted pine and black oak bushes, and re- 
store the potash, lime and phosphorus drained from the 
soil by long cropping without fertilizers, when a few hun- 
dred miles to the Southwest lay those wide savannahs and 
broad alluvial bottoms, teeming with tropical luxuriance, 
to which the Government would give him a fee simple for 
a dollar and a quarter an acre ? 

Third. — Cotton is not a rapid exhauster of any soil. 
Compare for amount of mineral and organic matter re- 
moved from the soil, the potato crop with the cotton crop. 
The stalks of cotton and of potatoes are alike returned to 
the soik An acre in potatoes yields, in tubers, say ten 
thousand pounds weight, which is wholly removed. Three- 
fourths of this is water, leaving twenty-five hundred 
pounds dry and mineral matter. In cotton, the same acre 
would yield a bale, or four hundred pounds of lint. The 
weight of the dry seed would be about three times that 
of the lint, that is, twelve hundred pounds. Add the 
weight of the lint, and the sum is sixteen hundred pounds. 
Thus, compared with the potato, the removal is as sixteen 
to twenty-five. 

But in the rudest agriculture ever practiced on cotton 



102 COTTOX CULTURE. 

soils, the custom has been to plant six, eight, or ten times 
as many seeds as were expected to become plants. In 
other words, of the twelve hundred pounds of seed taken 
from an acre, a thousand pounds were returned to the soil 
as a fertilizer ; so the real removal was only six hundred 
pounds from an acre, that is, as compared with the pota- 
to,' six to twenty-five, or about one-fourth. 

The preservation and restoration of cotton lands de- 
pends on two practices, one mechanical, the other chemi- 
cal ; the former involving no expense other than a little 
well directed labor, the latter the restoration of a few 
pounds of potash, lime and phosphorus, to each acre 
from which a crop has been taken. 

Of the two, probably the former is as important as the 
latter ; on hill lands very much more so. 

Under these two heads the subject will be considered. 

First. — Circle plowing and ditching. 

Second. — The nature and amount of fertilizers required 
by cotton. 

Several circumstances conspire to make the deterioration 
of upland cotton soils by washing very great. In the first 
place, the cotton soils are all soft, light, and porous, " as 
mellow as an ash-heap." In a natural state, they ai-e kept 
in place by the roots of the trees, leaves, and the tough 
cane roots, and fallen canes, which are the natural growth 
of that climate and soil. 

When all these are removed by clearing and the plow, 
what should keep the mould from being carried by the 
washing of coj)ious rains down the sharp hill-sides, and 
swept away into the swollen streams ? 

Consider, also, that the requirements of cotton call for 
frequent plowing and hoeing ; so that all weeds and grass 
are destroyed, and no little roots remain to hold the sur- 
face in a sod. The cotton root is small and smooth, going 
directly down into the subsoil. Nor is the surface of the 
country locked up from the abrasion of the rain, by those 



COTTON CULTURE. 103 

penetrating frosts that, north of the Ohio and the Poto- 
mac, for four or five months of each year, keep every peb- 
ble in phice, and open the surface in April in precisely the 
same condition in which it was left in December. 

It would not seem to demand any remarkable inventive 
power to accommodate the mode of jDlowing to the re- 
quirements of the cotton soil in the United States ; but 
nothing like circle plowing has been in general practice 
until within twenty years past. 

The State Geologist of Mississippi, in that part of his 
report which relates to cotton culture, says the idea was 
first suggested by Thomas Jefierson, who had seen the 
peasants of France conforming the curve of their fnrrows 
with the slope of the hills on which they were plowing. 
Mr. Jefierson was, for many years, a correspondent of Sir 
William Dunbar, who had extensive plantations on the 
steep but fertile hill lands that extend from the Missis- 
sippi River, near Natchez, eastward to the Pine woods, 
which, at the distance of thirty miles from the river, cover 
the greater part of the country. Mr. Dunbar is said to 
have been the first to practice circle plowing in Mississip- 
pi. The simple good sense of the innovation on the old 
and ruinous mode, at once recommended itself, and.it be- 
came almost universal among all enterprizing and well in- 
formed planters through the South. But millions of acres 
had been well nigh ruined and thrown out to sedge grass 
and the foxes, before the improved mode was brought into 
practice. In that part of Mississippi where it was first 
adopted, the plowmen have acquired great skill and a 
practiced eye, so that, give a man a good two-horse plow, 
and he will engage to run it in such a way that in the 
softest soil, spi-ead over an irregular group of steep hills, 
hardly a ton of mould shall be washed into the bottoms 
during the most rainy season. 

Probably the best way to begin this system is in con- 



104 cotto:n' culture. 

nection with a series of circle ditches. These are laid out 
and made in the following manner. 

Determine by experiments, or observe from the charac- 
ter and extent of the Avash in a circular furrow, the fall 
that must be given a ditch in order that the soil at the 
bottom of it may not wash in gullies during a hard rain. 
In many lands tliis fall must not exceed an inch in ten 
feet, or one foot in a hundred. Commence now at the 
foot of the hill, at the point where it is desirable to have 
the waters of the hill-side discharged, and with a survey- 
or's level ascertain the point which is three hundred feet 
distant and three feet higher than the feet of the observer. 
Mark these points by stakes, mai'ked No. 1 and 2, and 
thus proceed from stake No. 2 to stake No. 3, until sev- 
eral hundred feet are laid off. The curves and irregulari- 
ties of the hill-side may not permit you to take observa- 
tions of three hundred feet; in that case make the obser- 
vations shorter and the stakes more numerous, but keep- 
ing the slope the same. Now run a furrow with a double 
plow from the first stake to the second, and so on over all 
the ground surveyed. Thi'ow off two or three more fur- 
rows in the same way, and then let hands with hoes and 
shovels haul all the loose earth into one ridge. The 
spring of the year is the proper time for doing this, after 
the heaviest of the early rains. Then, when bedding up 
for a crop, be careful not to disturb these ridges. Their 
bottoms should be dressed off smooth and level, and t!ie 
ridge trodden quite firm. In working the crop, pay some 
attention to these ditches, keeping the bed smooth, and 
filling up any little washes that occur, but being careful 
not to break the surface of the ridges or banks. If they 
soon become covered with grass, Aveeds, and scrub pines, 
it will be all the better. These ditches will take the wa- 
ter as it comes pouring down the hill in a violent rain, 
and convey it away down a slope so gentle that no wash- 
ing can take place. 



COTTON CULTURE. 105 

In cultivating the land that has been thus preisared, let 
the plowing correspond in direction and slope to these 
ditches. In this manner, all the middles between the beds 
will have the same fall, that is, one foot in a hundred ; 
and, except in very long and violent storms, no water will 
pass over from one ridge to the other, that is, no wash 
will ever cross the ridges or beds. But when the rain is 
very copious, the circle ditches are at hand Avith a firm, 
sodded bank, to arrest the destructive torrent and confine 
the waters to their prescribed courses. 

In this- manner, all the fertilizing properties of the soil 
may be retained in it, and directed to the growth of useful 
plants ; whereas, if washing is freely permitted, the hill- 
side becomes nothing but a series of sluices for carrying 
off some of the best constituents of the mould or earth 
above. 

The above rule of one foot in a hundred is not given as 
a specific. In some localities it will do ; on other soils it 
is too steep. Judgment and experience only will give the 
true grade. The plan above recommended differs but lit- 
tle from that described by Mr. Forman in his paper, pub- 
lished in the Patent Office Reports for 1853. 

Mr. Forman recommends changing the grade of- the 
circle ditch every fifty yards, making, it steeper and 
steeper as the bottom of the hill is reached. 

Unless the nature of the soil changes materially, I do 
not see the propriety of Mr. Forman's suggestion. If a 
fall of one inch in twelve feet is proper near the top of the 
hill, why is not that the best grade on the middle and near 
the bottom of the slope ? 

He proposes a fall of one inch in twelve feet for the first 
fifty yards, counting from the summit; two inches in 
twelve feet for the next fifty yards; four in twelve feet 
for the next fifty, and- so on to the bottom. 

For most hill lands, in the cotton States, a grade of one 
inch in ten feet for the entire distance will be found better. 
5* 



106 COTTON CULTURE. 

As a cheap yet eflfective tool for laying off this grade, 
tlie following is given. It is Mr. Formau's, with one or 
two modifications. 

Select a piece of ash or oak, just ten feet long, one inch 
thick, and four inches wide. Mortice it into a leg or sup- 
port of pine, three feet long, and two inches square. 

Make another leg three feet and one inch long, and cut 
tlie mortice several inches long, so that the har or lath can 
be moved up or down so as to vary the length of the fore 
leg, as compared with the hind leg, two or three inches. 

This may be omitted entirely if cheapness is an object 
and the bar fastened by screws, which can be drawn so as 
to make any necessary variation. If put together so that 
each leg shall be of the same length, the variation can 
easily be made by screwing a block of an inch or more in 
thickness on the foot of the front leg. 

To complete this instrument and fit it for use, it will be 
necessary to fasten on it a small spirit-level ; this can be 
screwed upon the side of the bar near one end, or on the 
top of it. Probably a long slender phial, nearly filled 
with some colored fluid and fastened to the top of the bar, 
would give a sufficient degree of accuracy. Now having 
determined upon the slope of the ditch, arrange the length 
of the legs accordingly. Your assistant stands at the 
point wdiere you wish the water to be dischai'ged, that is, 
at the bottom of the hill, and he has the hind leg. He 
carries a handful of pins in his hand. The operator at the 
front leg moves that end either up or down the slope, un- 
til the bar is level. Mark the beginning point with a pin, 
and move on, setting the hind leg in the track just made 
by the fore leg, and sticking a pin. The path thus indi- 
cated by the row of pins is the line of the hill-side ditch. 
It should go three or four inches into the subsoil, and care 
should be exercised so as not to have short turns, as their 
effect is to throw the descending water against the em- 
bankment. 



COTTOX CULTURE. 107 

After a violent sliower or a long washing rain, it will he 
necessary to walk through the ditches to stop the washes 
and throw out the bottoms with a hoe. In these visits 
the farmer Avill often see slight changes that can be made 
such as chano-ins^ the ffrade at the turns. 




Fig. 19.— INSTRUMENT FOR GRADING. 

a. Lath or bar 12 feet long, one inch thick, four inches 
wide, with (/, a spirit-level screwed upon it. 
h. Hind leg, 2 inches square, 3 feet long. 

c. Front leg, 2 inches square, 2^ feet long. 

d. Sliding leg, 2 inches square, 3 feet long, graduated 
and numbered from o up and down six inches each way. 

e. Thumb-screw and bolt, by which the sliding leg is 
made fast at any required point ; the mark c, on the front 
leg, corresponding to o, on the sliding leg. 

The instrument of which the cut is given, is that de- 
scribed by Mr. Forman. One much cheaper than this, as 
above indicated, Avill answer all purposes. 

In many cases the feet might be 15 or 20 feet apart. 
This would make the laying off much more rapid. 
Where the ground is not sodded, instead of using pins, 
the drawing of the hind leg along the line wuU make a 
sufficient mark to guide the eye of the plowman. 

It will also be found practically convenient to let a 
plowman follow close upon the rear operator, guiding his 
horse by him. A day's practice will enable two persons 
to move rapidly enough with the level to keep a plow in 
steady motion behind them, and, after a good plowman 
has followed the level a few days, his eye will become so 



108 COTTON CULTURE. 

educated iliat lie can lay off ditches without any level, 
except on very irregular ground. 

We come now to a consideration of tlie i:)roi3er manures 
for the preservation and restoration of cotton lands, and 
the best manner of applying them. The harvesting of the 
product of an acre, for instance, planted in cotton, re- 
moves from the soil about sixteen hundred pounds of or- 
ganic matter, of which four hundred pounds is in the form 
of cotton-wool, or lint, and the balance in cotton seed, 
i^o jDart or constituent of the wool is ever returned. 

Let us now see what chemical substances are abstracted 
in taking aAvay this wool. Suppose a hundred parts of 
cotton-wool be burned to an ash, and this ash subjected to 
chemical tests. AYhat will appear to be its constituents ? 
Thirty-one per cent., or nearly one-third, is potassa; seven- 
teen, or less than a fifth, is lime; and twelve and a half 
per cent., or just one-eighth, is phosphoric acid ; a little 
magnesia, and a little sulphuric acid are also found. 

Thus, for every ten thousand pounds of cotton-wool, 
which might be expected to gi'ow on twenty-five acres, 
sixty pounds of the above mentioned ingredients are with- 
drawn from the soil. That is, of phosphoric acid, twelve 
pounds; of lime, seventeen pounds; and of potassa, 
thirty-one pounds. Suppose this process to be repeated 
for twenty years ixpon the same twenty-five acres. There 
will have been withdrawn frona the soil during that pe- 
riod two hundred and forty pounds of phosi^horic acid, 
three hundred and fifty poimds of lime, and six hundred 
and twenty pounds of potassa. Such is the rate at which 
ihe wool or staple alone of the cotton exhausts the soil. 
The consumption is, certainly, very moderate. If a little 
more than half a ton of these chemical substances were 
incorporated with the soil every twenty years, or what 
would be better, sixty pounds a year, the twenty-five acre 
field would not decrease in fertility. 

Suppose now that the cotton seed as well us the v»'Ool is 



COTTOK CULTURE. 109 

not returned to the soil. The composition of the iisli of 
cotton seed has been found to be as follows : sixty-two 
per cent., or nearly two-thirds, is phosphate of lime; thir- 
ty-two per cent., or nearly one-third, is phosphate of po- 
tassa; the balance is made up of a little sulphate of po- 
tass;), a little silica, with slight traces of the carbonates of 
lime, magnesia, and potassa. 

Thus it appears that, as a dressing or fertilizer for cot- 
ton lands, no substance is superior to cotton seed, and 
when this is used as fully as possible, that is, when all the 
seed of a crop is retui-ned to the soil as manure, except 
what is necessary to germinate the crop of the following 
year, the consumption of chemical constituents in the soil 
is very slow, being at the rate of sixty pounds for twenty- 
five acres, or a little over two pounds to the acre. Of the 
three mineral ingredients abstracted by the cotton-wool, 
two are easily replaced, the potash and the lime. Com- 
mon wood ashes, and plaster, or slaked lime, or bones 
burned or crushed, will easily supply this demand. The 
requirement for phosphoric acid is not so easily met. 
The demand for it is moderate and the consumption slow, 
being at the rate of only half a pound to the acre, but the 
necessity for this element, in order to produce a healthy 
plant, is imjDerative ; and in all soils that are not alluvial, 
that is, where there is not a great abundance of fine vege- 
table mould, the demand for phosphorus is probably the 
reason why diseases of various sorts, such as the rust and 
tlie rot, attack the plant. 

In addition to lime and ashes, some fertilizer containing 
the phosphates must be used. Compost, or barn-yard 
manure, and bone manure, will supply this element. 
Weeds abounding in the alkalies furnish profitable vege- 
table matter for making a good compost. Muck or peat, 
v.'hich is decayed vegetable matter in mass, contains a 
large amount of the phosphates and the alkalies. 

To give a summary then, of the best manure for cotton 



110 COTTOX CULTURE. 

lands, we may say : Make a compost henp by hauling 
muck to the barn-yard, and allowing hogs to root it over 
and wallow upon it. The droppings of barn-yard fowls 
should be added as being particularly rich in the phos- 
phates. Some lime and ashes may profitably be sprinkled 
from time to time upon the pile. When this compost ma- 
nure is rich in all these elements, it should be applied 
liberally, and in connection with it, the mode of plowing 
and ditching above described should be employed so as to 
retain upon the soil all the fertilizing salts. If twenty-five 
acres of land, which is naturally good cotton land, is 
dressed with, say, a cord to "the acre of compost manure 
such as is described, there is no reason in the nature of 
things why it should not, for ten years at least, and prob- 
ably for twenty, continue to produce a bale to the acre. 

Of the condensed fertilizers it is probable that guano, 
the most powerful of all the manures, being the ordure of 
sea birds and containing a large amount of bone earth, 
and being also particularly ri'ch in the phosphates, is the 
best. Next to guano may be mentioned crushed bones, 
or bone ashes ; and it may be Avell in this connection to 
give Liebig's rule for the preparation of bone manure. 

" Pour over the crushed bones or bone ashes half their 
weight of sulphuric acid, diluted with four parts of water. 
Add one hundred parts of water, after the former mixture 
has been digested for twenty-four hours. Sprinkle this 
mixture over the field immediately before plowing. By 
this action, in a few seconds, the free acids unite with the 
bases contained in the earth. A neutral salt is formed in 
a very fine state of division, that is very uniformly and 
evenly dispersed through the soil." 

By this manner of applying manure, it is rendered so 
fine and so tlioroughly mixed with the soU that the roots 
of the plants find it in every direction. 

The practice of manuring in the drill, or in the hill, 
which is successful with corn, does not answer at all with 



COTTOX CULTURE, 111 

cotton. Throw a shovelful of strong stable mannre hato 
a shallow i:iit and cover it with an inch of earth, and you 
have a bed on which Indian corn will be almost certain to 
sprout, and where, in a favorable season, it will grow vig- 
orously. 

If a dozen or more cotton seeds were dropped on a pre- 
cisely similar bed, the probabilities are that not a single 
one would ever germinate or produce a healthy plant. 
They would all rot. The reason of this was very carefully 
investigated some years since by Dr. Cloud, a cotton 
planter in Alabama, one of the most intelligent, as well as 
industrious, agriculturists that ever gave thorough and pa- 
tient investigation to all the details and reasons of success- 
ful cotton growing, 

Dr, Cloud at first manured generously in the hill, allow- 
ing half a gallon of compost to each plant. The cotton 
grew finely after it came up, but he could get no stand by 
this method. He found, after experimenting and careful 
investigation, that the unnatural warmth and dryness pro- 
duced by a mass of strong maiaure, is fatal to the germi- 
nation of cotton seed, " The cotton seed," says he, " in the 
process of germination, attracts from the surrounding soil 
and from the atmosphere an unusual amount of water as 
compared with other seed undergoing this process. Any 
artificial condition of the soil which concentrates immedi- 
ately about the cotton seed at this time an undue quantity 
of alkaline, gaseous matter, causes the fluid contained in 
tlie tender, reticulated or mesh-like, incipient, vegetable 
fibre, to xxndergo a species of fermentation which, of 
course, destroys the vitality of the young plant. Cotton 
is subject to this influence where a quantity of good ma- 
nure, either compost, guano, or chemical fertilizers have 
been used in the hill, 

" The tap-root of the cotton plant does not make its 
way into the soil a perfectly organized root ; the radix or 
tap, leaving the seed at the small end, plunges directly 



112 COTTON CULTUKE. 

dowiiAvarcl, and commences j^onring out a semi-fluid sub- 
stance which passes downward, partly by the force of 
gravity. 

" This substance is remarkably delicate and fragile, easily 
broken up and disturbed by any foreign or unkindly pres- 
ence. It is the mould in which the tap-root is formed. 
Thus it is easy to understand that an unnatural alkaliza- 
tion, or the warmtli and ferment produced by fresh and 
strong manure in the close vicinity of a vegetable process 
so delicate, should affect and generally destroy its vitality." 

After making this discovery. Dr. Cloud, by no means 
ceased the use of compost manures on his cotton. He 
spi'ead it on broadcast and plowed it in. 

He communicated the results of his various experiments 
and discoveries to the Albany Cultivator, and the follow- 
ing condensed instructions on scientific cotton culture may 
be taken as a summary of Dr. Cloud's method, with vari- 
ous additions and suggestions derived from the experience 
of the author of this Treatise. 

"High farming," when cotton is the chief crop, does not 
consist in drawing large crops from virgin or from alluvial 
mould, returning nothing and exhausting any soil that is 
not, like the alluvions of the Mississippi or the Nile, 
strictly inexhaustible. The truly successful cotton planter 
is not the man who manages, year by year, to take a 
thousand bales from a thousand acres of Mississippi bot- 
tom or the black cane lands of middle Alabama. The 
really admirable manager is one who takes average land, 
the natural growth of which is pine or forky-leaf black 
oak, or small white oak, keeps it in as good condition as 
he found it, or even better, raises his own meats, vegeta- 
bles and wool, and one year with another takes as much 
cotton from an acre as his neighbors, working in the old 
way, take from three ! 

By what system of agriculture, now, can these results 
be obtained ? 



COTTOIf CULTURE. 113 

First of all, let the planter who aspires to brilliant 
success ill his profession prepare his lands so as to prevent 
washing, and retain in the soil all the fertilizing salts he 
finds there, and all he may add by generous manuring. 
The precise metliods by w^hich this is done are given in 
detail in the first pages of this chai:)ter. 

Now let him arrange for a rotation of crops as follows. 
Divide the plow^ed land into three parts or tracts, not by 
fences, but " in your mind's eye, Horatio," assigning for 
each farm laborer five acres in cotton, ten in corn, rye, 
wheat, oats, barley and potatoes, according to soil and 
climate, and allowing five to remain fallow. Calculate to 
have on the farm stock enough to consume all the food 
that grows on those ten acres per hand, mides, horses, 
oxen, cows, sheep, goats and poultry, and lay it down as 
a first principle that no manure is to be wasted. For that 
purpose provide a series of stock pens on the most level 
land that the place affords, fence them high, and throw np 
a little bank at the fence, so the tendency of the Avash 
will be towards the centre. Here erect a shed on four 
posts, the ends that enter the ground being charred. Let 
the shed be about twenty feet square and hip-roofed. 

Let every animal on the place be confined at night in 
these enclosures, or in stables, and provide an abundance 
of litter. Leaves from the forest, and particularly ])me 
straw, is better even than wheat or oat straw, as it is 
shorter and contains more potash. Moisture is needed in 
order to rot any litter you may use. Yet, if the manure 
heap is too wet, you carry an unnecessary amount of wa- 
ter into the field. Hence the best plan is, to scrape the 
cattle yards on wet days, piling the compost imder the 
sheds, there to ferment and decay. As soon as a yard is 
scraped down, cover with fresh litter from the forest ; this 
also can be more conveniently gathered on w^et days, or 
immediately after a rain, while it is yet too moist for 
plowing. When the successive layers are thus collected 



114 COTTON CULTURE, 

under the shed, other and more concentrated fertilizers 
may be added. If your soil is deficient in lime, sprinkle, 
say a bushel, every time the yard is scraped. Wood ashes 
never come amiss on any soil. Sprinkle over the compost 
heaps all the ashes the place affords, never allowing a 
shovelful to be thrown away or to become leached by the 
rain. Obtain a few pounds of sulphuric acid, and after it 
has eaten up all the bones and decayed animal matter on 
the place, sprinkle it upon the compost beds. The de- 
cayed leaves and the ashes will afford the potash your 
crops want ; the bones and the ordure will yield the phos- 
phoric acid and the lime. 

In this manner, when March comes, there will be five 
hundred bushels of compost manure for every acre of cot- 
ton. The land upon which it is to be spread was fallow 
the year before, and thus the cocoons of the Boll-worm 
are all dead. Mark off the field by a scooter plow (unless 
t^e old rows are visible) into lines ; the first, fifteen feet 
from the fence, and the others, thirty feet apart. On these 
lines or rows deposit the manure, in heaps of ten bushels 
each. This is easily done by having the capacity of the 
cart twenty bushels, and hoeing out half at the first heap 
and dumping the rest of the load for the second. In this 
way the manure is evenly distributed at the rate of ten 
bushels to nine hundred square feet, which is within a 
small fraction of five hundred bushels per acre. With 
compost manm-e, made up as described, and especially that 
to which ashes, lime, dissolved bones or guano has been 
added, this allowance is heavy manuring and very thrifty 
plants may be expected. Accordingly, the rows should 
be laid off wide ; five feet is none too wide. Mark the 
beds by running a plow at this interval that will make a 
deep, narrow, furrow. N"ow spread the compost, throwing 
some, but not a great deal, into this furrow, and let the 
turn or mould-board plow follow, casting two furrows 
toward and into this first trench, and continue running un* 



COTTON CULTURE. 115 

til all the inicldles are broken out and tlie manure well 
covered in. 

This should be done a month before planting time ; then 
from the first to the tenth of April, if the season is sufii- 
ciently warm and dry, harrow the beds and mark not only 
the line of the rows, making them perfectly uniform and 
straight, but by cross plowing lay ofi" the distance of the 
plants from each other in the drill. 

Probably with this high manuring, thirty or thirty-six 
inches ouglit to be allowed. Plant by dropping three or 
four seeds in the drill at the point indicated by the marker. 
The best way of preparing seeds is to roll them in a mix- 
ture of lime and ashes, with Avhich a little guano has been 
mixed, having soaked them previously in stable manure," 
to which salt and water have been added. Treated thus, 
germination will be almost certain and prompt; As soon 
as tlie third leaf appears, go over the crop with the hoe, 
for, with the thorough plowing and harrowing, very little 
grass will have made its appeai'ance in ten days. 

Select the thriftiest plant and destroy all the others, 
thus thinning out to a stand at once, and leaving the fields 
pei'fectly clean. In this way, all the vigor of the soil, and 
the dressing Avhich has been thus generously applied, is 
concentrated upon the plants, and they may be expected 
to thrive and gi-ow very rapidly. 

The cultivation can be done almost entirely with the 
plow and scraper after the second hoeing. Twice, at 
least, before the plants attain their growth, the scraper 
may be run each Avay ; and as there is entire uniformity 
throughout the field, the rows being exactly five feet 
apart, and the plants in the row precisely three feet asun- 
der, there will be no difiiculty in running the wing of the 
scraper within two inches of the plant on all sides. 

After the first of June the limbs of the plants in the 
rows will commence to interlock, so that the plows can be 
run only between the l^eds, that is, in the five foot inter- 



116 COTTON CULTURE. 

val. Here the plowing may be continued through the 
greater part of July, as frequently as the condition of the 
crop requires it. 

Now, what returns may be expected from a field thus 
manured, thus planted, and thus cultivated? Dr. Cloud 
tells us that in this way he made at least double crops and 
sometimes treble, that is, he took as mu.ch cotton from 
his five acres as his neighbors from their ten or fifteen 
acres, cultivated in the old style. 

It will be observed that cotton seed is not recommended 
as a direct or immediate manure for the cotton plant. It 
has been found that cotton thrives better on the second 
year after a liberal application of cotton-seed manure than 
on the first. It seems that cotton seed is, at the first, too 
heating as a manure, creating as it does some fermentation 
in the drill Afterward, when fermentation is ended, 
there is a tendency to an undue stimulation of the plant to 
the production of woody fibre. In other words, the plant 
that is strongly stimulated by cotton seed, tends to growth 
rather than productiveness. For this reason, it is found 
better to reserve that part of cotton seed intended for ma- 
nures, and apply it as a direct and powerfid fertilizer to 
the corn. In this manner a very fine crop is taken from 
the field the next year after the corn is harvested, and the 
force of the cotton seed and of the compost manuring of 
the previous year, become sensible in the third year in the 
crop of wheat, barley, oats, millet, peas, or potatoes, which 
are grown on the second year after the cotton. On the 
fourth year the land is permitted to rest and " enjoy its 
Sabbath." 

By this system of rotation the cotton-louse, the rust, 
the dry rot, and the Boll-worm, are quite sure to be pre- 
vented, and the only risks which the planter takes in his 
cotton are the dangers from caterpillar, the Army-worm, 
or an early frost. By promptness and energy the two 
former may be successfully contended with, and the more 



COTTON CULTURE. 117 

SO as the cotton field is only half as large as that com- 
monly put in cultivation by the same number of bands. 

By following this method of thorough manuring and 
systematic rotation, the certainty that the planter may feel 
in his cotton crop is mucli greater, and the large amount 
of cereals and edibles wliich he raises, and the abundance 
of stock which he consequently keeps upon his place, ren- 
der him much more independent of his merchant in case 
of a failure of the cotton crop ; and he is also much more 
able to prescribe the time of selling, and the price, than if 
he had a heavy balance agamst him for pork, beef, flour, 
and clothes, already advanced by his factor. But the 
crowning advantage or recommendation of this system is, 
that his lands are all the time growing better. The fer- 
tilizing salts, incorporated with the soil in the five hundred 
bushels per acre of rich compost manure, followed by a 
liberal dressing of cotton seed the next year, are not ex- 
hausted by the three successive crops of cotton, corn, and 
cereals which are taken from the land. As the surface is 
so ditched and plowed that the fertilizing properties added 
in the manures are all retained, it opens richer on the 
fourth year after enjoying its rest of one year, than it did 
at the commencement of the former series, so that in six- 
teen or twenty years of this "high farming," which is 
nothing more than true farming, the cotton grower may 
confidently expect to see his plants standing six and eight 
feet high, the branches interlocking on both sides, each 
plant loaded with bolls, and the field yielding considerably 
over two bales to the acre ; while within lifle shot he may 
see the lands of his neighbors covered with little stunted 
plants twenty inches high, admitting of free passage along 
rows that are four feet wide, sufi'ering every year from 
some of the diseases that befall, or the enemies that attack 
the plant, so that the average yield, one year with anotli- 
er, w411 not be much over half a bale to the acre. 

Tliis almost incredible difierence is wholly due to a 



118 COTTOX CULTUEE. 

Strict adherence to wliat should he regarded as a cardmal 
principle in all farming oi^erations. That is, always to re- 
turn to the soil more fertilizing properties in the form of 
manure than are removed in the crops ; and to cultivate 
every crop with such thoroughness that the entire produc- 
tive energy of the soil and its constituents will be con- 
served and concentrated upon the plant in cultivation. 

Another advantage which the cotton grower will reap 
by this system of generous manuring, and particularly by 
the use of fertilizers which are rich in phospliates, is the 
imj^rovement of his seed, and consequently an increase in 
the length and fineness of his staple ; for an excellent 
quality and an abundant yield of cotton-wool can no 
more be expected from seeds which are dwarfish, than 
large clips of wool can be taken from small, half-starved 
sheep. The improved varieties of cotton seed which are 
introduced from time to time, and whose merits are loudly 
vaunted, are nothing more than the product of common 
varieties, grown in a favorable season, on fertile soil, and 
in the best part of the cotton zone. 

Improve the cotton seed, and your staple is directly 
augmented in value. It is on this account that guano has 
been found an excellent fertilizer for cotton. It does not 
stimulate the growth of a plant so rapidly as some other 
manures, but it tends directly to perfect tlie seed and the 
staple. It can be used to great profit. Ten dollars worth 
of it, or three hundred pounds per acre, properly applied 
to land that, without it, might produce a thousand pounds 
of cotton, will double the crop, due allowance being made 
for the casualties and vicissitudes affecting the cotton 
plant, as guano is no specific against any of its ills, except 
the lice and sore-shin. 

It should be remarked that guano as well as compost 
manure ought to be applied early in the season, and well 
blended with the soil by the plow and harrow. It is a 
sort of medicine to the soil, so to speak, and its immediate 



COTTON CULTURE. 119 

effects should have time to pass away before the seeds are 
presented for germmation. As guano is particularly rich 
in phosphate, it is well to use it in combination with a fer- 
tilizer that supplies some other principal constituent of the 
plant, as, for instance, lime. Hence, it is recommended to 
mix a bushel of guano with half a bushel of plaster of 
Paris, or sulphate of lime, and apply it at the time of the 
first plowing, when the beds are thrown up. The effect 
of one will be to stimulate the fibrous growth of the 
plant and give it size ; of the other to increase its produc- 
tiveness, by enlarging the size of the seeds, increasing 
their vigor, and thus producing a staple that is longer 
and more finely colored by the oil that is drawn from the 
seed. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE VARIOUS KINDS OF COTTON CULTIVATED IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

There are two leading varieties of cotton cultivated in 
the United States, the black seed and the green seed. 
The black seed is botanically known as the tree cotton, or 
Gossypium arboreuTn, and came from India. The green 
seed, or bearded cotton, is of Mexican or West India 
origin. The nankin or yellow differs from the Mexican 
mostly in the color of its staple, it being of a pale yellow 
hue. Peruvian cotton has been introduced and cultivated 
to some extent ; it has black seeds which cling firmly to- 
gether, while the seeds of the Sea Island are separate and 
easily parted from the wool. 

The cultivation of the Sea Island is local, and the 
amount produced in this country, as compared with the 



120 COTTOX CULTURK. 

Upland or Green Seed, is as one to one hundred. As the 
soil, climate, and mode of ginning of the Sea Island are 
all different from the Upland, some account will be given 
at the close of this chapter. 

The Mexican seed was introduced from that country 
about the beginning of the present century. The story is 
that our Consul at the City of Mexico, noticing the supe- 
rior quality of the staple grown in that country, asked 
permission of that Government to bring home a quantity 
of the seed. His request was refused ; but afterwards, 
when dining with one of the Ministers, he was told that 
he could not take cotton seed out of the country, but the 
Mexican Government would make no objection to his ex- 
porting as many dolls as he might wish to. The Consul 
took the hint, and ordered several hundred dolls to be 
stuffed with choice cotton seed. Thus the fimous " Mexi- 
can seed," known from James River to the Rio Grande, 
became domesticated in the United States. Its peculiarity 
seems to be its adaptation to a dry, uniform climate. The 
wool or staple is white, with a faint tinge of yellow, after 
it has laid for some time in the seed. In a dry season, 
when the supplies of moisture have been moderate, and in 
small quantities at a time, the staple of the Mexican is 
long, even and soft ; the bolls open wide, and the weight 
of the seeds pulls the wool out, and causes it to hang in a 
long silken tuft or handful, which, if not picked for some 
time after opening, is liable to become soiled with mud and 
sand, or, after frost, filled with fragments from the leaves 
and pods. 

A number of planters in the southern part of Mississip- 
pi, near where Rodney now stands, were among the first, 
if not the very first, to pay attention to the improvement 
of cotton seed. Thefy produced an excellent quality, 
which was much in demand in all parts of the South. 
Their bags were marked " Petit Gulf," the name of a 
sn^.all shipping point on the river where an eddy in the 



COTTOX CULTURE. 121 

stream made a little bay or gulf. From this circumstance 
the seed was universally known as " Petit Gulf," or Gulf 
Seed, and under that name has been so extensively used 
in all parts of the South, except the Sea Islands, that it 
may be regarded as the seed from which the " American 
Upland" of commerce has been produced. Beginning 
with the year 1820, and from that time forward, various 
planters in different parts of the cotton growing States 
have devoted themselves to the development and sale of 
improved varieties of cotton seed, and certain styles of 
cotton have for two, three, or four years, enjoyed a great, 
though ephemeral popularity, and then, as suddenly, been 
pushed aside for a new reigning favorite. 

The improvement of cotton seed as a business, and the 
sale of the improved varieties, has enabled quite a number 
of prominent and enterj^rising planters throughout the 
South to realize handsome fortunes. It is probable that, 
as a manure, cotton seed is seldom worth more than twen- 
ty-five cents a bushel, or, at least, twenty-five cents judic- 
iously expended in making good compost or barn-yard 
manure will produce as much fertilizing power as can be 
obtained from a bushel of cotton seed. But- a good 
quality of Petit Gulf, or Mexican, commands at least fifty 
cents, and the choice varieties, such as the " Sugar Loaf," 
the "Brown," the "Hundred Seed," and many others that 
could be named, such as the "Banana," the "Multibolus," 
the "Pi-olific," under ordinary circumstances, command 
from one to three dollars per bushel. A bushel of cotton 
seed weighs from twenty-five to thirty pounds. An acre 
produces, of the cotton wool, say four hundred pounds, 
and of the seed fourteen hundred pounds. Thus, for ma- 
nure, the product of an acre in cotton seed is worth eleven 
dollars. 

It is practicable for every cotton grower by selec- 
tion, improvement, and judicious cultivation, to pro- 
duce an improved seed. ISTow, how is this to be done? 
6 



122 COTTON CULTUEE. 

Ill general, it may be said, that cotton seed, like corn, po- 
tatoes, or wheat, is imjjroved by cultivating the plant in 
the best manner, under the most favorable circumstances, 
and then selecting from each stalk those bolls which are 
the largest, the finest, and the most perfectly matured. 
The seeds from these bolls are^ after ginning, to be again 
picked over, all that are blasted or imperfectly shaped, 
rejected, and the remainder carefully tended, so as not to 
become fermented, or in any manner damaged before 
planting time of the following year. 

Probably as much depends upon locality as upon any 
other circumstance with respect to the improvement of 
cotton seed. Choice varieties never come from the rank, 
moist lands of the Mississippi Valley, near Natchez; 
neither does the neighborhood of Memphis afford superior 
seed. The first improvements in cotton seed in this coun- 
try were made, as above stated, by painstaking with the 
original Mexican seed, on the part of a few planters living 
on the Mississippi River, not far below Vicksburg. The 
immediate vicinity of Vicksburg has also been remarkable 
for yielding superior varieties. Colonel Vick, of that city, 
a descendant of the man from whom the place is named, 
has been the most persevering and the most successful of 
all the Mississippi planters in the art of perfecting cotton. 

Another very successful and somewhat more noted agri- 
culturist, remarkable for the great variety as well as the 
excellence of his seed, is Mr. M. W. Phillips, of Edwards, 
Mississippi, a small town in Hinds County, a few miles 
north of the capital of the State. In 1848, Mr. Phillips 
wrote : " The seed most relied on in Mississippi and Lou- 
isiana is Mexican seed, known in Carolina and Georgia 
as ' Petit Gulf seed,?because there first planted and im- 
proved, on tlie hills around Rodney, Mississi^Dpi, where 
the improvement began ; but there is just as good seed, 
at present, elsewhere, as in that vicinity. We plant 
' Sng^r-loaf' or 'ProUfic,' ' Lewis' Prolific,' 'Vicks' Hun- 



COTTON CULTUKE. 123 

drecl Seed,' ' Guatemala,' ' Brown Sead,' and others. Ex- 
cept the ' Guatemala,' they are all, I believe, mere selec- 
tions from the Mexican." 

Probably the most noted and, on many accounts, the 
best varieties or developments from the original "Petit 
Gulf," are the "Prolific " and the " Sugar-loaf" seeds. A 
planter in Hinds County, writing upon the characteristics 
of tbe latter variety in 1848, says : " This day, being 
called into my field south of my pasture, where I have my 
selected 'Sugar-loaf seed planted, I was so forcibly 
struck with the prospect, that I conceive it my duty to 
draw attention thereto. I saw, repeatedly, limbs with six, 
eight, ten and twelve bolls and forms, which were not 
that many inches long ; I could span so as to reach ten 
without any exertion. I have forty acres planted with 
Sugar-loaf seed, and think, I can reasonably calculate on 
fifty bales, and I do not know of any other forty acres of 
Petit Gulf seed, in this region, which promises forty bales. 
My seeds have been planted remote from others for these 
two years ; they were selected from the field by myself, 
assisted by a very careful laborer ; yet I find a great ten- 
dency in this seed, as in all the improved varieties, to run 
back, which can only be guarded against by careful, 
yearly selection." 

The same agriculturist, writing seven years later, in 
1855, gives the following summary with regard to the 
improved cotton seed in that vicinity. " We will plant as 
nearly an entire crop, as we have good seed, with the 
' Cluster ' cotton seed. This is the original name, but 
known now by as many diiferent styles as there are per- 
sons who desire to make money by selling seed. We ex- 
pect to plant ' Silk,' ' Hundred Seed^' ' Sugar-loaf,' ' Draw,' 
and small parcels of others. The ' Cluster,' or ' Banana,' 
has been much improved. The best now on sale is 
' Boyd's Prolific ' ; from this I have culled very carefully 
for three years. Many who have seen this selection deem 



124: COTTON' CULTURE. 

it better than the original accidental variety ; for I learn 
from Mr. Boyd that the ' Prolific ' seed, which has beconae 
so noted, originated from an accidental stalk which he 
found among his cotton, which he considered very remark- 
able for the number of bolls it contained. He carefully 
preserved all the seed of this extraordinary specimen, and 
very properly names it the 'Prolific' 'Silk' is perhaps 
better for all descriptions of land ; many of my friends 
prefer it to 'Banana,' objecting to the latter for poor 
lands, and also for rich fresh land. On the first the forms 
dry up, and on the latter the stalk becomes so rank, that 
it breaks down. This latter defect can be remedied by 
topping. ' Sugar-loaf is best upon new ground, where 
the soil is rich and the growth sweet gum. I have made 
a bale and a quarter to the acre the first year the land was 
cleared. The ' Hundred Seed ' still retains its popularity, 
as suitable for rich, fresh land." 

As an instance of the manner in which many somewhat 
celebrated varieties have originated, the following circum- 
stance is subjoined. In 1847, Colonel H. W. Vick, 
who had been for fifteen or twenty years selecting and 
improving his seed, made up eight small parcels of cotton 
in the seed, and sent them to Mr. Phillips, requ.esting his 
examination and the results of his experimenting. One 
of these packages was marked " Belle Creole," not known 
at all as a distinct variety, but resembling the " Silk." 
Mr. Phillips planted these eight varieties in the spring, 
cultivated and picked them with his own hands, taking ' 
special care in the selection of the finest bolls on each 
plant. From the growth of the seventh package he 
selected a small number of the finest bolls, and sent some 
to Governor Hammond, of South Carolina, and another 
package to J. V. Jones, a planter in Georgia, who was 
quite well known as an agricultural writer under the sig- 
nature of " Jethro." Out of compliment to Mr. Jones 
this was called the " Jethro " seed, and is regarded as a 



COTTON CULTUKE. 120 

very choice variety, and was produced, as we learn, from 
Mr. Phillips, by Colonel Vick of Vicksbnrg, who selected 
year after year those plants which yielded the softest and 
the finest cotton, sent a package to a neighboring planter 
who cultivated the seed carefully, and sent a package of 
his seed to Georgia, where it attained celebrity for tlio 
fineness and softness of the staj^le. 

Some of the varieties of cotton seed were wonderfully 
prized when first introduced, and commanded sums that 
seem almost fxbulous. For mstance, the " Banana," a seed 
that became famous about twenty years ago, at first sold 
for a hundred dollars a bushel. It was introduced by a 
planter in Warren County, Mississi^^pi, near Vicksburg, 
and the production was supposed to exceed anything that 
had before been known. It was almost identical with the 
"Hogan" seed, and some paid ten cents apiece for 
" Hogan " seeds. Yet, for some reason, probably the de- 
terioration natural to a careless selection of seed, it was 
not three years before " Banana " could have been bought 
for fifty cents a bushel. The same is true of the " Masto- 
don," which came in repute about the same time. Mr. 
Ably, a very sensible and ingenious planter, near Yazoo 
City, and Mr. D. F, Miller, of Concordia Parish, Louisi- 
ana, took prizes on "Mastodon" cotton; and as the- lint in 
this variety clings to the seed a little more firmly than the 
others, an improvement, or a modification rather, of the 
ordinary gin, was made to suit it. And yet, a few years 
after, a writer in the Cultivator, from Cayuga, Mississippi, 
speaks as follows of this famous variety : 

"If you recollect, the 'Mastodon' Avas introduced some 
four or five years since, and I remember when there was 
not sufficient seed in the neighborhood to supply the de- 
mand at five dollars per bushel. I am acquainted with 
the gentleman who first j^lanted and sold the seed in this 
State, and it is generally believed that his profit was much 
greater from the sale of the 'Mastodon' seed, than the 



120-^—--, COTTOX CULTU-JRR. 

proceeds of his entire croiD for two years ; but at this 
time there is not a seed of it growing, to my knowledge." 

Some varieties, as the " Brown " and the " Multiboll," 
and the " Okra," under favorable circumstances, produce 
a plant that is very prolific in bolls, sometimes throwing 
out twice as many as a common seed. But an objection 
is very properly made to them, that the cotton hangs 
loosely from the open boll, so that, if -a stormy day occurs 
in the latter part of October, or early in November, when 
the fields are the whitest, a large part of the open cotton 
is blown out and wasted. This is probably more than an 
offset to the greater facility of picking. 

As a summary of the whole matter of varieties in cot- 
ton seed, a careful perusal of nearly every thing that has 
been written upon the subject, together with the verbal 
testimony of a large number of excellent planters, has 
brought me to the following conclusions : 

I. — Every cotton grower, who cultivates a good cotton 
soil in the best part of the cotton belt, (the region be- 
tween thirty-two and thirty-three north latitude,) can, in 
a few years, produce a choice variety of cotton seed by 
taking pains with any of the ordinary seed. 

II. — This improvement is brought about by carefully 
selecting the best bolls that open before frost, regard be- 
ing had sometimes to the number of bolls upon the plant, 
and sometimes to the fineness and softness of the staple. 
By selecting the former, he may produce a seed famous 
for its productiveness. By taking the latter, the variety 
may have a high repute for the superior quality of the 
lint. After ginning, the seed is sorted over, and well cared 
for until the planting time of another year. 

III. — All these improved varieties are quite certain to 
" play out " in a few years, unless the same pains are taken 
to sustain the character of the seed that Avere used to- pro- 
duce it. In other words, no variety will remain superior 
unless the seed cotton is selected with care. 



COTTO^f CULTTJEE. 127 

IV. — It always pays to be particular in collecting and 
caring for the seed cotton of a place. The practical dif- 
ference between good seed and bad, is this : By having 
seed that produces a superior quality of cotton, the planter 
may obtain from one to five cents more a pound for his 
crop. By planting seeds remarkable for the largeness of 
their yield, he may realize an increase of from one hundred 
to three hundred pounds more of ginned cotton to the 
acre. 

V. — An enterprising, and pains-taking cotton grower, 
by developing a superior quality of seed, and securing for 
it a reputation, may make as much from the sale of his 
seed, as he does from that of his ginned cotton, — it being 
understood, of cou.rse, that he is surrounded by planters 
Avho, being careless with respect to their own seed cotton, 
are always desirous to obtain improved varieties. 

SEA ISLAND COTTON. 

Edisto Island, south of Charleston, is the most favorable 
part of the United States, in respect to both soil and 
climate, for the production of " Sea Island Cotton." It 
has a sandy soil, but little above tide, which, penetrating 
the island through numerous small channels, gives ii-reg- 
ular shape to 1;he plantations, biit permits boats to come 
to almost every man's door. The mud from salt marshes 
is much used as manure, and is difterently applied, accord- 
ing to the taste and judgment of varioixs jDlanters, As 
the soil is generally very light, it is unproductive, unless 
manure is used ; and even v>'ith manure the average yield 
of Sea Island cotton is not much more than half the av- 
erage of Upland cotton. A sea-board planter, Avriting 
from Liberty County, Georgia, in 1848, says that in eight- 
een years his crops have averaged a fraction over three 
acres per hand, the yield one hundred and thirty-seven 
pounds per acre, and the net proceeds per hand, eighty- 



128 COTTOIN' CULTUKE. 

three dollars. During that period, the highest average 
price paid was thirty-seven and a half cents j^er pound ; 
the lowest, fourteen cents. 

The Sea Island cotton is the product of a plant that 
seems to have been first canied to tlie Bahama Islands 
from the Island of Anguilla, whither it is "believed to have 
been transported from Persia, and was introduced and 
cultivated upon the islands along the coast of Georgia, 
immediately after the close of the Revolutionary War. 
The staple or filament of Sea Island cotton is exceedingly 
long, silken, and delicate. To pay as well as the short 
staple, or Upland cotton, the Sea Island must sell for 
twice as much per pound. Since the year 1850, the price 
has greatly advanced, so that Sea Island has, much of the 
time, commanded three and four times as much per pound 
as the ordinary staple. 

About ten years ago, samples of Sea Island cotton, 
grown on Edisto Island, together with a number of speci- 
mens of the soil, were taken to Baltimore, and carefully 
examined and analyzed by the State chemist. The 
analysis of the seed and wool gave results very similar to 
the analysis of Upland cotton, given in the first part of 
Chapter Third. 

It may be well, however, to subjoin a few of the results 
obtained by the Baltimore analysis. Taking two hundred 
pounds as the average growth of Sea Island cotton upon 
an acre, and adding the six hvmdred pounds removed in 
seed, it was found that, reducing these eight hundred 
pounds to ashes, and ascertaining the composition of the 
ash, an ordinary crop removes each year from an acre a 
little more than twenty-six and a half pounds of chemical 
salts, of which a little more than nine pounds, or about 
one-third, is potash, nearly nine pounds is phosphoric acid, 
of sulphuric acid a little more than a jDOund, three and a 
half of magnesia, and of lime nearly two pounds. The 
principal difference between this and Upland cotton is in 



COTTOX CULTUKE. 129 

a substitution of magnesia for lime. The amount of joot- 
asli is very nearly the same in both varieties. The Sea 
Island has a little more phosphoric acid than the other, 
and less lime. The soil upon which the two hundred 
pounds of cotton, thus analyzed, was raised, was found to 
be composed, as to its bulk, of nine-tenths of fine alluvial 
sand, and one-tenth of a cement, consisting of sand, perox- 
ide of iron, clay, lime, magnesia, and humus. 

An examination of the cement, or that part of the soil 
which is not entirely sand, shows that it is composed very 
largely of a combination of sand and peroxide of iron, a 
considerable amount of magnesia, and a small quantity of 
lime. On account of the deficiency of lime, the cotton 
plants ai-e led to appropriate more abundantly magnesia, 
a substance which, in its chemical character and proper- 
ties, much resembles lime, and which, therefore, is capa- 
ble of taking its place to some extent. 

As to the directly nourishing properties of the soil, the 
analysis shows, that in the three thousand tons which 
constitute the surface for the depth of one foot over an 
acre, thei*e is less than fifteen pounds of phosphoric acid. 
As one two-hundred pound crop consumes nearly nine 
pounds of phosphoric acid, it follows that, with no ma- 
nure, the second crop, planted on the same soil, would 
find a little more than half enough jDhosphorus for its 
proper growth. 

In the same soil, there was found less than twenty 
pounds of potash, so that, as a two-hundred pound crop 
consumes over nine pounds of this chemical salt, the third 
successive crop, without manure, would find little or no 
potash to feed upon. Tlie result of this chemical exami- 
nation of the Sea Island soil is, that it must be kept up by 
tlie use of manures rich in the phosphates, rich in potash, 
and having a considerable amount of sulphuric acid. A 
dressing, composed of rotten cotton seed, mixed with the 
ordure of domestic animals, if used in sufficient quantities, 
6* 



130 COTTON CULTURE. 

would meet this deficiency; and of manures, not directly 
the product of the soil, the best are Peruvian guano, bone 
dust, dissolved in sulphuric acid, and the various refuse 
of manufactories, rich in potash. 

The Sea Island cotton is planted from March twentieth 
to April tenth, upon high beds, five feet apart one way, 
by from eight to twenty-four inches the other, according 
to the richness of the soil. It is cultivated in very much 
the same manner as Upland, except that more reliance is 
placed upon the hoe and less upon the plow. Much more 
pains is taken in picking, ginning, and marketing the Sea 
Island cotton, than with the ordinary Upland. In gath- 
ering it from the field, great care is exercised to keep it 
free of trash and all stains. It is transferred at once to 
the drying scafiTold, -^vhere it is sorted over before packing 
away in the cotton house. The ginning is done almost 
entirely in dry weather, when the cotton is again sunned 
and picked over ; that which is picked late in the season, 
or after a rain, is run thi'ough the trasher, which Avhips the 
locks against pegs or bars, and frees them from sand and 
loose dirt. 

It then goes to the gins, where the seeds are separated 
from the wool. It is somewhat remarkable that no prac- 
tical improvement has yet been made upon the rude in- 
vention Avhicli was used for this purpose almost a century 
ago. Neither the Whitney gin, nor any of its modifica- 
tions or improvements, are found to be efiectual in sepa- 
rating the lint of Sea Island cotton from the seed, without 
cutting or tangling it. The form of this ginning instru- 
ment is extremely simple, consisting of nothing more than 
a treadle and a couple of small iron fly-wheels, for the 
purpose of producing the rapid and steady revolution of 
tvro wooden rollers, about a foot long, and about an inch 
in diameter. These rollers wear out very rapidly, and are 
renewed almost daily. It is probable that a pair of gutta 



COTTON CULTUKE. 131 

perolia rollers, of about the size of those used in clothes 
wringers, might be found effective and durable. 

A "Mr. L. S. Chichester has produced a machine which 
is said to be entirely successful in its operation on Sea 
Island cotton. The lint passes between two rollers, one 
fluted, made of polished steel, an inch and a quarter in 
diameter ; the other of vulcanized rubber, twice as large, 
while a plate of iron, vibrating in front of the rollers, rips 
out the seeds as the cotton is drawn through. It is stated 
that it cleans three hundred pounds a day without crush- 
ing any of the seed. 

The machine, in common use, is set in motion by the 
foot of the operator acting upon the treadle, and the cot- 
ton is fed between the rollers by hand, the lint passing 
through, and the seeds being retained. The operation is 
slow, as compared with the process of Whitney's gin. 
Thirty or forty pounds a day ~is the extent that can be 
ginned on one of these little machines, whereas a good 
eighty-saw Whitney gin will, in the same time, turn off 
thirty-two hundred j^ounds. N'o other satisfactory mode 
of propelling these gins has ever been discovered, though 
much money and ingenuity have been employed in the 
endeavor to apply horse and steam power to the operation 
of ginning Sea Island cotton. 

From the gins the cotton passes to the mote-table, 
where a careful and experienced operative examines it 
minutely, picking out every little mote and stained lock. 
The operation can proceed as fast as two gins can supply 
the material. From the mote-table it goes through the 
hands of a general superintendent, and then to the packer. 

This kind of cotton is seldom pressed in the oi'dinary 
square bale, the purchasers preferring that packed by 
hand. The operation of hand-packing, as it is called, is 
performed by sewing the open end of a strong bag over a 
hoop, and suspending it through a hole in the floor. The 
cotton is thrown into the bag, and the packer stands with 



132 COTTO?^ CULTUKE. 

a "wooden or iron pestle, and rams down each successive 
layer or parcel of lint as it comes from the gin-room. The 
bale of Sea Island cotton is fifty or a hundred poundsless 
than the Upland bale. 

This staple is never manufactured into the coarser mus- 
lins, but is used for the most delicate febrics, such as cot- 
ton cambric and jaconet It is extensively used in the 
manufacture of the finest qualities of cotton thread, and 
it is also consumed in lai-ge quantities by silk manufac- 
turers, the fine, soft, and glossy fibre rendering it an 
adulteration of the thread of the silk-worm difficult to be 
detected. 

The seed of the Sea Island cotton, which came origi- 
nally from the Bahama Islands, and was known as the 
Anguilla cotton, was first cultivated by Josiah Tatnall, 
and Nicholas TurnbuU, on Skidaway Island, near Savan- 
nah, and subsequently on St. Simon's Island, at the mouth 
of the Altamaha, and on Jekyl Island. 

The largest crop ever raised in this country was in 
1827, when the amount produced was nearly fifty thous- 
and bales. Of late years, that is, since 1850, the annual 
production has been about thirty thousand bales annually. 
The Sea Islands proper, Edisto, Saint Simon's, Jekyl, Skid- 
away, and others, that line the coast of South Carolina, 
Georgia, and Eastern Florida, produce the finest quality. 
When the average price of " long staple " is fifty cents 
per pound, the cotton from many plantations on these 
islands will command sixty and seventy cents a pound. 
That raised on the lower bottoms of the Santee is next in 
value, while the Florida cottons are generally a little in- 
ferior. 

From 1830 to 1850, the average price of Sea Island was 
a little less than twenty-five cents a pound. Since 1850 its 
price has nearly doubled, the average for a number of 
years being forty-five, forty-eight, and fifty cents. 



COTTON CULTURE 133 

CHAPTER V. 

HOW TO REALIZE THE MOST FROM A CROP ; SUGGESTIONS 

AS TO THE UNION OF THE GROWING OF COTTON WITH 

ITS MANUFACTURE INTO YARNS AND FABRICS. 

The most that can be expected, or rationally proposed 
for the South, in the present generation, is a manufactur- 
ing system by which she may be able to produce the 
greater part of the plainer and coarser fabrics necessary 
for her consumption. It is i^racticable for the cotton- 
growing communities to produce on the spot, and within 
sight of the fields wdiere the staple grows, their own Low- 
ells and Osnaburgs, their own Linseys, and enough coarse 
bagging-cloth to make neat and snug wrappings for that 
part of the crop which is exported. 

Instead of the present system, where every planter who 
makes upwards of twenty bales considers it necessary to 
have a gin, gin-house, cotton-sheds, and packing screw of 
his own, let the planting communities unite in the erection 
and eqviipment of a large neighborhood factory, with ar- 
rangements and conveniences for manipulating the ent-ire 
crop raised within, say, six miles of the spot of its produc- 
tion, and making the most of it in every sense of the 
word. By estimating the present and prospective density 
of the population, the amount of the coarser cotton fabrics 
demanded for the yearly consumption of the community 
can readily be estimated. 

In many parts of the cotton States, a neighborhood, or 
community, living within about five miles of a common 
centre, produces, in a favorable year, five thousand bales 
of cotton. The number of persons of all ages and both 
sexes, in such a community, is about fifteen hundred. I 
speak now of a strictly agricultural township where cotton 
grooving is the business, everything else being subordinate 
and auxiliary to this principal occupation. The average 



134 COTTOIT CULTURE. 

of the number of bales ginned and pressed at each gin- 
house, is not over two hundred, and in a great many- 
neighborhoods much less than that; and the average cost 
of these establishments for ginning and baling the crop 
may be put at five thousand dollars, many steam-gins 
costing twenty and thirty thousand, and, on the other 
hand, many old-fashioned gin-sheds and old style wooden 
screws not being worth more than five hundred dollars. 
But, taking five thousand as a reasonable average, there 
is, in such a community, a hundred and twenty-five thous- 
and dollars laid out in aj)pliances for ginning and baling. 
Now, the plan here proposed is that, instead of having 
this hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars distributed 
over so large an area and invested in gins and the ma- 
chinery that accompanies them, let the neighborhood unite 
in putting up a flictory that will gin out this whole crop, 
bale up in a small compact manner, with excellent bagging 
and strong varnished hoops, over four-fifths of the crop 
raised, and which shall also have arrangements for spin- 
ning and weaving sixty thousand yards of Lowells, Osna- 
bui-gs, and strong muslins, annually, and twenty thousand 
yards of Linseys. 

The number of spindles and looms necessary to produce 
these eighty thousand yards of cloth can easily be esti- 
mated, and procured without difiieulty. The number 
should be no more than sufiicient to produce this amount 
of cloth in the course of a year. K a larger number were 
put uj), the building might need to be much stronger and 
higher than would otherv.dse be required, and there would 
be no certainty that the extra looms and spindles might 
not stand idle for a considerable part of the time. 

The subjoined drawing is a ground plan of a cotton 
factory of this description, designed for the accommoda- 
tion of a community that produces five thousand bales 
annually. 



COTTON CULTUKE. 



135 



W W W JV, represents a substantial wall, or fence, 
that surrounds the factory. It is two hundred feet each 
way. H, IT, are gate-ways. The enclosures, marked «, 
a, a, are cotton-sheds, or cribs, of sizes varying according 




PLAN OF COTTON FACTOKY AND INCLOSUEE. 



to the number of bales which the diiFerent planters in the 
vicinage commonly produce. These sheds, or cribs, are 
substantially covered, the roofs extending each way from 
the ridge-pole over the walls, which are open, of lattice 
work, for the free admission of air. The marks, m m m 
m, in the fence, or wall, are small openings, say 4 ft. x 4 
ft., for the purpose of unloading the wagons without driv- 
ing into the yard. ^S' is a large, well built, scaflold, slop- 
ing toward the south, upon which the cotton, when taken 
from the sheds, is spread, to be thoroughly sunned before 



136 COTTOX CULTURE. 

feeders, which move slowly from the platform or scaffold 
to a receptacle above the gin-stands, from which the cot- 
ton is fed to the gins. G represents the ginning-room, 
where four or five gin-stands are placed side by side, pro- 
pelled by an engine that is located directly underneath. 
C represents a small apron which conveys the cotton seed 
from beneath the gin-stands to O, an oil-mill, in immedi- 
ate connection with the spinning, weaving, and ginning- 
mill, where are all the necessary appliances for extract- 
ing the oil from the seeds, j^ressing. clarifying, and barrel- 
ing it. Immediately in the rear of G, the gin-room, is L, 
the lint-room, into which the cotton passes directly from 
the gins. Underneath the lint-room is a powerful press 
and packing-box, capable of compressing four hundred 
pounds of lint cotton into a space a Httle larger than 
twenty-seven cubic feet, or a cubic yard. 

A press, capable of doing this, was patented in 1860, 
by P. G. Gardner, and is more fully described in the first 
part of this Treatise. It is twelve feet in hight, very 
strongly made, very hard to break or put out of order. 
It can be worked by hand, horse, or steam poAver, according 
as rapidity and economy of human strength is desired, 
and will compress four hundred pounds of cotton Avithin 
the space of a cubic yard. 

Of course, bales made in such a press and well bound 
with iron hoops Avould require no further compression at 
sliipping ports, and might be carried from the remotest 
plantations to Boston, or to Liverpool, Avithout losing half 
a pound in waste. 

D and D are large double doors on rollers, at the rear, 
Avhere the floor is on a level with the top of a Avagon bed, 
so that the bales, or the manufactured cloths, can be 
loaded with the greatest ease at one door, and the barrels 
of cotton seed oil at the other. The openings, KK K K^ 
are windows. 

The first story or basement of the part marked B and 



COTTON CULTURE. 137 

E, is occui^ied by the engine, wliicli is under the gin-room, 
and by the packing screw ; and the rear portion, Avith 
bales ready for market. F F are the boiler and smoke 
stack. Directly above it, the second story commences at 
the front with the ginning-room, back of which is the lint- 
room, and in the rear of that the carding and spinning- 
room. The third story is devoted to weaving, and also 
to the carding and sjjinning of a small amount of wool, 
sufficient to make twenty thousand yards of linsey-wool- 
sey in the course of the year, enough to supply the neigh- 
borhood with all the plain woolen clothing they require. 
In the attic, or fourth story, there are arrangements for 
spinning and weaving into coarse bagging all the very 
much stained and inferior cotton which is brought to the 
factory. 

With cotton at its present prices, (18G7), considerably 
over twenty-five cents a pound, this Vv^ould not be advisa- 
ble ; but eventually, when cotton falls, as it may, to about 
ten cents a pound, and the lowest grades to sis and seven 
cents, it v<^ould be true policy for each neighborhood to 
make its own bagging. The article thus manufactured 
from the refuse and trash would be much closer and 
stronger than the ordinary Kentucky hemp bagging in 
use, and beside, the superior protection afforded to the 
bales would be valuable for various purposes after it had 
reached the end of its journey and been stripped from 
the package. 

There is space in the gin-room for four largo gins of 
eighty saws each, which, running steadily, would turn off 
forty bales per day, and thus the entire crop of the neigh- 
borhood or township, amounting to five thousand bales, 
could be ginned out, packed, hooped, riveted, and branded, 
between the first of September, when the gins begin to 
run on the new crop, and the first of January. 

What now are the advantages of a system like the one 
here proposed ? In the first place, the planter needs no 



138 COTTO^r CULTUKE, 

gin or gill-house, and only very cheap cotton-sheds for the 
temporary storing of a part of his crop, it heing hauled 
and stored in his shed at the factory, of which he himself, 
if he chooses, can carry the key. In doing so large an 
amount of ginning, it would, of course, be expected that 
the machines would be of the best construction, and the 
operator, a person skilled in cotton and in machineiy, so 
that the ginning would be done in the very best manner, 
the lint thoroughly removed from the seed, and not torn, 
or cut, or matted, or tangled by the improper action of 
the saws. 

The appliances for packing and comj)ression are also of 
the very best sort, the press being made principally of 
iron, and worked by steam power, making the bales very 
nearly, if not precisely, cubical in form, and varying not 
five pounds either way from four hundred each. They 
would be banded with substantial iron hoops, an inch or 
more wide, and j)repared by being varnished, while hot, 
with coal tar. In the engine house, close by, is a black- 
smith's forge, wdiere the rivets are easily made and insert- 
ed while hot, battered down, or clenched in the most 
thorough manner. It would be expected also that the 
cotton wQuld be sorted or graded while passing through the 
gin, which is, by far, the best time for doing it ; and, as 
the planter's name or initials are branded upon the bale, 
the quality or grade could be put on at the same time. 
Honesty and thoroughness in this would soon work a most 
desirable change in the whole system of cotton marketing. 
There need be no sampling done, but the cotton ought to 
be sold according to the brand found upon it, so that the 
package would be entirely unbroken and undisturbed from 
the moment it was riveted in the gin-house, to the time 
the hoops are cut off in the distant cotton mill. The 
enormous and exorbitant charges which are made upon 
the crop at the various shipping ports, for drayage, 
storage, compression, re-packing, and insurances, would, 



COTTOX CULTUEE. 139 

ill this manner, be very much reduced, if not quite 
abolished. 

After the principal part of the crop has been thus per- 
fectly prepared for the market and shipped, it is proposed 
to throw the power of the engine for the remainder of the 
year upon the machinery in the second and third stories. 
During the months of January, February, March, and 
April, the spindles and looms axe to be kept running upon 
the sixty thousand yards of Lowells and Osnaburgs, 
which are required for neighborhood consumption. 

During the latter part of the summer, the machinery is 
employed in making up twenty thousand yards of Linseys, 
which are required for the winter wear of the population 
represented in such a factory ; and, as before stated, the 
worst of the cotton, say fifty bales in all, could be, during 
the same time, spun and woven into bagging. 

It is not to be supposed, that the above plan of having 
for every planting neighborhood, a ginning establishment 
capable of preparing nine-tenths of tlie crop for market 
in the most thorough manner, manufacturing the remain- 
ing tenth into all the cotton and linsey clothing required 
by such a community, and converting two-thirds of the 
seed into oil, will be found practicable, or even desirable, 
everywhere. In some regions, there would arise a diffi- 
culty as to fuel. In others, water power would be found 
cheapest, and in that case it might be best to enlarge the 
working capacity of the factory, and send many thousand 
yards of sheetings, miislins, and calicoes, annually to mar- 
ket. In others, the prime objection would be, that a good 
gin-house is now standing on every plantation, and there 
would be no economy in hauling the cotton in the seed 
five miles, when the facilities for ginning it at home are 
equally good. But with regard to those parts where 
the gin-houses have been destroyed in the late war, or 
where they are old and ill arranged ; or in freshly opened 



140 COTTON CULTURE, 

sections, where the better plan can be adopted at the first, 
some such arrangement is earnestly recommended. 

The plan of acting by association in the ginning 
and manufacture of jilain fabrics from the crop of each 
neighborhood, will be found especially suited to the small 
producer, the farmer, who, by his own labor and that of 
his children, plants and harvests ten or fifteen bales of 
cotton each year. It enables him to enter upon the busi- 
ness of cotton growing with as small an outlay as will 
enable him to engage in the cultivation of potatoes, or 
onions, or hops. He needs no gin or gin-house, nothing 
but a yoke of oxen with which to haul his seed cotton to 
the factory, where one bale will make cloth enough for his 
family for a year, and the balance will be ginned, classed, 
packed, pressed and covered, hooped and branded, with as 
much care and thoroughness as the five hundred bales of 
his opulent neighbor, and thus goes to market in a much 
better condition and with greater probabilities of com- 
manding a just price. 

The only difiiculty to be overcome in order to the es- 
tablishment of an effective and adequate system of manu- 
factures for the South, is that of population. Operatives 
are wanting, and not only so, the class from icJiich opera- 
tives are produced. The inhabitants of the cotton States 
prefer agriculture to any other j)ursuit; and while the 
population is so sparse that in most neighborhoods there 
are thirty acres of land to every person, no considerable 
number of the original stock will be, by any social neces- 
sity, driven from the soil into the mills. 

For this reason, nothing but a large immigration of 
people, not wedded to the culture of the soil, will enable 
the South to do more than manufacture her ovm. cloths. 
The outlay and the enterprise to enable her to do this^ 
are so modei-ate, that the immense advantages to be se- 
cured by such a course must be forced upon the attention 



coTTOx crLTrrtE. 141 

of all those of her citizens who are guided by a wise and 
enlightened self-interest. 



CHAPTER VI. 

OF THE VALUE OF COTTON AS A PLANT, AND THE 
USES TO WHICH IT MAY BE APPLIED. 

The peculiarity of cotton is that it alone, of all products 
of the vegetable kingdom, meets a grand and universal 
demand of the race. Flax is the only other plant culti- 
vated to any extent for the purpose of making fabrics 
from its tissue. But in any but a torrid zone, linen is un- 
suitable as an article for general wearing apparel. 

The products of the sheep and of the silk-worm are, in 
some respects, superior, but they are also more costly, 
Nothing begins to compete with cotton as a material of 
dress in the union of the three important qualities of com- 
fort, durability, and cheapness. 

When, as in 1848, the average price of Upland cotton 
was six cents, or in 1852, when it was eight cents per 
pound, it is hardly possible to conceive of a cheaper dress 
than could then be made of cotton. Seventy-five cents, 
expended in plain Lowell, would clothe a laboring person 
in neat, whole garments, from April to October. There 
is no probability that it will ever fall to those figures 
again. It must, from the nature of things, and in any 
way in which the expenses can be calculated, cost from 
ten to twelve cents a pound to grov/ cotton by any other 
than compulsory, that is to say, unpaid labor. If, from 
the extensive growth of cotton in India, Egypt, and Brazil, 
the i^rice of Upland Americans should fall below ten cents, 
general foilure must overtake our cotton interests. While 
it ranges from ten to fifteen, prudent and econoihical 



142 COTTON CULTURE, 

planters, in favorable seasons, may make more than a 
living. 

When its price is above fifteen cents, and from that to 
thirty, skill and good fortune, with a reliable system of 
labor, must enaWe the cotton grower in the best parts of 
the cotton belt to grow rich. 

The probabilities are, that, as the tumults and disorders 
incident to the great civil war abate, the price of cotton 
will slowly decline to about fifteen cents, where it must 
remain, in order to be a profitable crop when raised by 
free labor. 

On this basis, the price of a yard of ordinary shirting 
or sheeting will be from eighteen to twenty cents, accord- 
ing to fineness, and a fair calico or print can be afibrded 
for about sixteen cents. But, at these prices, below which 
there is no likelihood that cotton fabrics can fall, no mate- 
rial can at all compete with this as the universal dress. 
As in food, the poor man buys the largest amount of 
palatable nourishment when he expends it in corn meal at 
three cents a jiound, so, when he buys the material for a 
plain shirt for fifty cents, there is no way of expending 
half a dollar by which he can buy so much of comfort, 
durability and neatness, as in buying three yai'ds of un- 
bleached domestic. 

At that rate, and in summer time, the laborer can be 
decently covered by exi^ending two dollars in cotton cloth. 

The enormous demand for chea]) cloth for the million 
has been so steady, ever since the gin and the jenny were 
invented, that only a small amount of the great staple has 
ever been diverted to the production of other articles use- 
ful in the domestic arts and comforts. Cotton has been 
called " vegetable wool," and on many accounts it answers 
admirably to that description. It stands half way, as it 
were, between the animal and vegetable kingdom, having 
some of the characteristic advantages of each. Fine, soft, 
and glossy, it reminds one of silk in the delicacy of its 



COTTON CULTURE. 143 

feel, and can be blended with silk in composing fabrics 
that appear little inferioi- to those made exclusively from 
the thread of cocoons. When matted together, it pro- 
duces a Avad or padding, only a little inferior to wool, in 
warmth and elasticity. A firm and lasting vegetable fibre, 
it is capable, like hemp and Manilla grass, of being 
wrought into cords and ropes which, for evenness, pliabil- 
ity and strength, are equal to anything made of those 
materials. 

As a material for beds, let us compare it with the arti- 
cles in general use, and learn, first its qualities, and then 
its relative cheapness. 

When made into mattresses, the objection, and the only 
objection urged against it is, that it is liable to wad, or 
bunch up, and thus present an uneven, and hence an un- 
pleasant surface to the sleeper. 

Ordinary cotton, as it comes from the gin, is liable to 
this dilficulty. But if the fibre is combed out ui long 
rolls, as in the cotton batting extensively used for cover- 
lids, and laid in crosswise, one layer crossing the other at 
right angles, until the required thickness is attained, and 
the mattress well tacked or stitched together, so as to hold 
the contents just where it was laid, no such difficulty 
arises, and the mattress thus made is equal to wool in 
softness. It is a little less elastic, but as an offset, this cot- 
ton being vegetable, is perfectly sweet and wholesome, free 
from all animal odors, not liable to become infested with 
moths and other vermin, and acquires no unpleasant or 
musty smell, as many other substances do that are used 
for beds, and especially feathers. 

Thirty pounds will make a good-sized double mattress. 
At ten cents per pound, which is about the cost of raising 
. cotton by free labor, the filling for a cotton mattress costs 
three dollars ; the cover about two and a half; the mak- 
ing-up a dollar. Thus, for six and a half dollars, the cot- 
ton grower can supply himself with a bed, equal in dura- 



144 COTTOX CULTURE. 

bility, sweetness, and Avarmtli, to wool or liair, and only a 
little inferior in elasticity. But the chief advantage of 
cotton for mattresses is in the fact that so much less ma- 
terial will suffice to give the same degree of softness, as 
compared with other materials. A thin cotton mattress 
for a single bed, or for a steamboat berth, is made to con- 
tain about ten pounds of cotton. This gives a soft, agree- 
able couch, easily removed for airing, and oue-third cheaper 
than any other suitable material. 

As a material for bed covers its use is so extensive that 
little need be said by way of recommendation. For 
warmth and lightness combined, nothing is superior, ex- 
cept very soft double-rose blankets, which are a luxury 
that only the rich can indulge in. Four pounds of cotton 
batting, costing say twenty-five cents a pound, stitched 
between sheets of worn calico, need cost but little more 
than a dollar, and the amount of comfort thus obtained 
could be found in heavy woolen blankets only at an out- 
lay of from fifteen to twenty dollars. 

Cotton can easily be made into blankets which, for soft- 
ness and comfort, are only surpassed by the finest of 
wool. Though not so warm as the heavy rose or Macki- 
naw blanket, they are sufficiently comfortable for the cold- 
est nights in the cotton region, where the thermometer re- 
mains but a few nights in the year below 32°, and much 
of the time in winter stands above 40° for weeks together. 

With a little ingenuity and skill, cotton can thus be 
made, to a family in moderate circumstances in the South- 
ern States of our country, as great and universal a bless- 
ing as the Bamboo or the Bread-fruit is to the native of 
the tropics. 

All that is required are facilities for developing all its 
useful qualities, and applying them to the production of 
the greatest amount of comfort. 

Let us, for example, take a family living on the borders 
of the cotton belt in Tennessee or Western Texas, and on 



COTTON CULTURE. 145 

the supposition that a cotton mill, such as is described in the 
foregoing chapter, is within ten miles, wliat can they do 
for themselves in one year by raising as much cotton as 
can be used in the family ? We will also suppose that the 
fixmily is poor, having been desolated by war, or having 
recently arrived in the country, and in want of many of 
the ordinary comforts. 

They will get in their crop in April, and tend it during 
the spring and summer. 

Early in September they begin to pick, and by the first 
of October have between three and four thousand pounds 
of cotton in the seed. At the factory, this will yield about 
a thousand pounds of cotton-wool, and a hundred and 
twenty bushels of cotton seed. Two hundred pounds of 
it, spun and woven into sheetings and Lowells, will give a 
fariiily of ten an abundance of cloth for dress of every 
description, bed coverlids, bed ticking, table-cloths, nap- 
kins, towels, warp for rag carpets, and yarn for knitting 
into socks. Two hundred pounds, in the form of batting, 
will afford material for making five warm, ample, cotton 
beds, and five thick, downy coverlids to cover them. If 
sixty or seventy pounds of avooI are bought, raised, or ex- 
changed for cotton, it Avill give material for half a dozen 
warm blankets, half wool and half cotton; also a hundred 
yards of Linsey, for the winter wear of the whole family. 
A few pounds of the inferior or stained cotton can be 
twisted into cords and ropes for beds, plow lines, and for 
binding the bales of a future crop. The hundred and 
twenty bushels of seed could be sent to an oil-mill and sold. 

In this calculation, it has been presumed that ten or 
twelve more bales will be raised and picked out, hauled 
to the mill for ginning and marketing in the usual way, 
which, at present prices, and after making all necessary 
discounts for ginning, bagging, hauling to market, and 
commissions and taxes, ought to bring the family some 
twelve hundred dollars in cash. 
7 . 



146 COTTON CULTURE. 

Thus, with no more industry or tact than is displayed 
in ten thousands of American families, the labors of a sin- 
gle season may he made to furnish ten persons, not more 
than three of whom are adults, an abundance of plain but 
warm clothing, a generous equipment of beds and bed- 
ding, a full supply of yarn, cordage, and ropes, oil enough 
for two years, and more than a thousand dollars in cash; 
beside a full crojD of corn, potatoes, oats, wheat, and the 
usual garden vegetables. Surely there is no other crop 
cultivated from which such various and such ample returns 
can be expected, and no part of the world that affords 
such attractions to the industrious poor, as the higher and 
healthier portions of the cotton belt of North America. 
All that is required to make those regions the most desir- 
able on the continent, is established and orderly society, 
with such a development of manufacturing skill as will en- 
able the cotton grower to i-ealize from this admirable 
l^lant all that its Creator has designed for t*lie material 
comfort of man and his social advancement. 

Some years ago, when cotton often brought its producer 
only six or seven cents a pound, considerable interest was 
felt in a discovery by which this abundant staple was to 
be employed as a building material. Some chemist dis- 
covered a petrifying compound, similar to Roman cement, 
the effect of which was to convert a mass of cotton upon 
which it was poured into a substance having the hardness 
without the brittleness of stone. He proposed to build 
the walls of houses by piling the cotton between planks 
at the requisite distance asunder, and pouring the cement 
upon the mass. But the importance of this discovery, 
however surprising, was soon neutralized by the increased 
price of cotton; and with the demand that now exists, 
and will continue to be felt for many years, there is no 
likelihood that it will come into active competition with 
brick and mortar as a building material. 

Some ten years ago, a Louisiana Frenchman, named 



COTTON" CULTURE. 147 

Lotiis Blanc, conducted a series of experiments with tlie 
view of utilizing the fibrous hark of the cotton plant, and 
making- of it a substitute for hemp. He arrived at some 
very satisfictory conclusions, and the result of his investi- 
gations may be stated as follows. If the cotton plant is 
taken at full maturity before damaged by frost, cut down, 
its lateral branches broken or cut away, and the main stem 
buried under a shallow fmTow for ten days or two weeks, 
the woody fibre becomes so decayed that it may be treated 
like hemp, and the fibrous bark thus disengaged makes 
good bagging and cordage. 

It has the color of tlie gunny or East India bagging, 
and is spun like the Kentucky hemp, either by machineiy, 
or by hand. 

The best way of producing it is by sowing the cotton 
seed broadcast. The plant, thus grown, runs up slender 
and puts out but few lateral branches, thus approximating 
in appearance to hemp. Whether the slender or the 
branching plant is taken, the use of it for this purpose 
cannot be connected with the production of cotton staple 
in the usual way. That is to say, a plant will not yield 
its full crop of bolls, and then give good hemp from the 
stalk. 

But it will often occur that from a premature frost, or 
the ravages of the caterpillar, a field of cotton is stripped 
of its foliage, while the stalk is still green and full of life. 
In cases like this, a disappointed planter may find his pros- 
pects much less gloomy, if he can, at once, cut down his 
stalks and produce from the bark almost as many bales of 
cotton stalk hemp as he would have harvested of lint from 
the bolls, if his crop had matured. 

The fibre thus obtained has been used by some manu- 
facturers as a substitute for rags in making paper, and is 
found to answer an excellent purpose. In some soils, as 
for instance that of the lower Mississippi bottom, cotton 
tends to rankness of growth rather than productiveness, 



148 COTTON CULTURE. 

and it may be found that more could be realized by rais- 
ing the plant for its hemp, than by cultivating it exclu- 
sively for its lint. 

But this use of the plant is to be developed by future 
industry and experiments. As yet, no planters have en- 
gaged in its culture for the purpose to such an extent, or 
with a skill and system that enables us to form any relia- 
ble opinion as to the practical importance of this discov- 
ery, for which Mr. Blanc has taken out a patent. The 
price of cotton-wool must decline considerably below the 
price it now holds, and is likely to keep for some years, 
before the attention of cotton growers will be drawn from 
the boll to the stalk ; unless Mr. B., or some other invent- 
or, shall discover some way of making the stalk useful 
after it has ceased to produce bolls, and all the open cotton 
has been picked. 

If facilities for converting the seed into oil are want- 
ing, let it be used as manure. In this form, it is worth 
at least twenty-five cents a bushel, and if is better 
policy, as a rule, to feed it liberally to the corn, and then 
feed the corn to the stock. Seventy-five or a hundred 
bushels, applied to an acre of corn, will about double the 
yield. If it would give fifteen bushels without the cotton 
seed, it will yield thirty with this di'essing. Nor does its 
effect cease with the first crop grown by its aid. Corn 
land, thus fertilized, if planted the next year in cotton, 
yields a third more, and its effect has been found to last 
for five years after it was applied. 

In a previous chapter, where the analysis of cotton-wool 
and cotton seed are given, it appears that the latter is es- 
pecially rich in potash, in lime, and phosphorus, the three 
grand elements of fertility. As a special and lasting ma- 
nure, cotton seed is surpassed only by bone-dust, super- 
phosphate of lime, and Peruvian guano. 

Finally, as closing this recital of the virtues and uses 
of the cotton jDlaut, it may be added that Southern phy- 



COTTON CULTUKE. 149 

sicians have found the tea of its root, or a decoction of it, 
reduced to a syrup, a valuable antij^eriodic. It counter- 
acts in the system the poison of those rich bottoms and 
wide alluvial savannahs where the plant flourishes and at- 
tains its greatest perfection. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE OF COTTON; ITS HISTORY 
AND STATISTICS. 

As a power in the world, as a prominent feature and 
main element of civilization, cotton is a child of the nine- 
teenth century. When men who are noAV old were chil- 
dren, cotton and goods made from it were spoken of 
something as we now speak of Japanese porcelain, or 
mantles from Afghanistan, as of articles rare and foreign. 

In this country, a little Avas raised by almost every 
thrifty farmer for domestic consumption. The seeds were 
separated from the lint by hand, at the rate of about a 
pound in a day, and the staple was spun and mainly used 
for knitting into stockings. 

There are neither in Homer, the Hebrew Scriptures, or 
other early writings, any allusions to gavments made of 
cotton. The skill of the early nations in the manufacture 
of fine linen and in the weaving of wool is so frequently 
alluded to, that if there had been any such thing as cotton 
cloth known in the times of Homer and Solomon, there 
must have been reference to them. Some four hundred 
and fifty years before Christ, Herodotus, in whose writings 
almost everything that was known in the ancient world is 
described, refers to cotton very distinctly, and describes it 
as a wool-bearing tree in India, " which has for its fi'uit," 



150 COTTON CULTURE. 

he says, " fleeces more delicate and beautiful than those 
of sheep." 

Two of the generals of Alexander, when they returned 
from the far East, brought back the first detailed accounts 
of the cotton tree, its product, and the extraordinary fab- 
rics woven from it. 

By degrees, cotton cloth from India was gradually in- 
troduced to the polite nations of the old world, and just 
before the commencement of the Christian era, the Romans 
seem to have unported quite large amounts of it, so much 
so that Verres, a cotemporary of Cicero, made awnings 
of it when he was in Sicily. Sixty-three years before 
Christ, Livy records that Lentulus covered the Roman 
forum with a cotton awning ; and thirty or forty years 
after, Caesar extended a cotton awning all over the Via 
Sacra, from his own private residence to the Capitoline Hill, 
a display of gorgeous magnificence and imperial profusion 
Avhich seemed, at the time, to the Romans, more dazzling 
than his exhibitions in the forum. 

Many of these Hindoo cotton fabrics were very extra- 
ordinary when considered as the product of the rude 
looms in which they were woven. They have been excel- 
led in delicacy and perfection only by employing the most 
consummate mechanism of modern skill. The Indian 
spins the cotton yarn with his fingers and distaff alone, 
and by long practise and wonderful patience, he acquires 
the art of drawing out, incorporating and twisting the 
fibres into a thread, almost absolutely uniform in size, and 
hardly larger than the filament of a spider. The only ma- 
chine he uses in weaving is a rude loom, which he carries 
about with him, setting it up under a tree, to the brancli 
of which he attaches the balances. He digs a little pit in ■ 
the ground where a part of the gear is arranged ; he sits 
upon the edge of the pit, thrusts his feet into it, and at- 
taclies the cords of the treadle to loops that go around the 
great toes. By arrangements so rude and primitive as 



COTTON CULTURE. 151 

these, from which we should hardly expect a fair article 
of gunny bagging, he makes those fine muslins which the 
Greeks called " Gangetekoi," or Ganges goods, some of 
which were plain, some ornamental, and some dyed with 
exquisite colors. 

Taveniier, a French traveler, sj)eaks of som.e muslins 
and calicoes which he saw at Surat, " so fine that you 
could hai-dly feel them in your hand ; and the thread, when 
spun, is scarcely discernible." 

The late Rev. William Ward, JMissionary at Serampore, 
speaks of muslins made in Bengal, so fine, that a piece re- 
quires four months to make it, and is worth five hundred 
rupees ; this fabric, when spread upon grass and moistened 
with dew, is so extremely thin as to be imperceptible 
without careful examination. A single pound of this 
thread was spun out to the length of a hundred and fifteen 
miles, and it is only of late that this hand spinning of 
Hindostan has been surpassed by English machines, which 
produced, for the Great Exhibition of 1851 thread so fine 
that a pound of it would reach over a thousand miles. 

There is a small district forty miles long and about three 
broad, lying northeast of Calcutta, which produces a sta- 
ple of great fineness, but too short to be spun by Euro- 
peans, or Avoven by any machinery. From this cotton is 
manufactured, in the rude way above described, the famous 
Decca muslins, sometimes called webs of woven, wind. 
On account of the Avonderful fineness of these Indian fab- 
rics, it was supposed tliat a very superior quality, and per- 
haps large amounts of cotton, might be grown in India, 
and thus a source opened to the English spinner from 
which he could supply himself, and feel a dependence less 
absolute upon American cotton. The experiment Avas a 
very faithful one. Several southern gentlemen, and five 
or six experienced overseers, men practically familiar with 
every detail of cotton growing, went out to India, takmg 
with them a large assortment of improved seed, the best 



152 COTTON CULTURE. 

of gins, models for gin-honses, and the necessary imple- 
ments for cultivating the crop. They remained there 
some six years. Their exjieriments were constantly di- 
I'ected to overcoming the various difficulties which they 
found in the way of raising large crops. They came away 
entirely satisfied that neither the soil nor the climate of 
India fits it to be a producer of any considerable amount 
of the higher grades of cotton. The unvarying division 
of its seasons into wet and dry, and the quick transition 
from one to the other, are ill adapted to cotton, which, for 
its successful growth, requires a wet and warm sj^ring, 
allowing the young jjlants to become well started and 
firmly set in the soil ; then a long hot summer with bright 
days and dewy nights, and occasional showers, (but no vio- 
lent storms,) to mature the bolls, and a long, dry autumn, 
giving full time for gathering the crop. 

In Egypt, where the culture of cotton was introduced 
about the year 1821, the climate and soil are both favor- 
able, and the quality of Egyptian cotton comjiares very 
well with that of America ; but the quantity, owing to 
the dependence of all agricultural operations on tlie inun- 
dation of the Nile, is very uncertain, the fluctuations be- 
ing extreme and beyond calculation. 

The shores of Western Africa, and Yoruba, in the in- 
terior, produce cotton in large quantities, but the staple is 
too coarse and short for the manufacture of the finer fab- 
rics. The distinguished traveler, Dr. Livingstone, has re- 
cently furnished much information as to the capacity of 
this region for the growth of cotton. He returned to 
Africa in the spring of 1858, prepared to prosecute the 
culture of the crop. Since the year 1852, Mr. Thomas 
Clegg has been engaged in the region of Sierra Leone, 
and, being provided with gins and other apparatus, so far 
succeeded, that in 1858, the total amount sent to Eng- 
land from that part of the world was nearly a hundred 
thousand pounds. In quality, the African cotton is decid- 



COTTON CULTURE. 153 

edly superior to that from East India, and in fineness and 
length of staple ranks next to American cotton. 

In the New World, the manufacture of cotton cloth ajD- 
pears to have been Avell understood by the Mexicans aud 
Peruvians long before the advent of Cortez and Pizarro 
to these shores. Columbus found the cotton plant grow- 
ing wild in Hispaniola, and the explorers that followed 
him recognized it as far north as the country bordering 
on the Mississij^pi River. 

Coi'tez, when he set out from Trinidad, on the southern 
coast of Cuba, on his Mexican expedition, used cotton for 
jjadding or quilting the jackets of his soldiers as a protec- 
tion against Indian arrows. He learned this from the 
natives, by whom it had been long used for that purpose. 
Arrived on the Mexican coast, among the gorgeous pres- 
ents sent him by the confiding Montezuma Avere " cur- 
tains, coverlids, and robes of cotton, fine as silk, of rich 
and various dyes, interwoven with feather work, that riv- 
aled the delicacy of painting." The Mexicans also under- 
stood the manufacture of white cotton cloths, and even 
possessed the art of converting them into a species of pa- 
per. In the latter part of the last century, the West In- 
dies shipped to England something like forty thousand 
bales, which was, at that time, nearly three-fourths of the 
cotton supply. It was mostly long staple cotton, of fine 
quality and, considering the climate and the soil of those 
islands, there is every reason to believe that cotton culture 
will revive and take the place of sugar, which supplanted 
it fifty or sixty years ago. 

The culture of cotton in Brazil commenced in the early 
jiart of the pi-esent century, and increased so rapidly, 
that for a number of years, Brazil exceeded every other 
country, except the United States, in the amount of cot- 
ton it produced. In many places on the coast, the climate 
was found adapted to the growth of long staple cotton. 
But, of late, the plantations have retired toward the in- 



154 COTTON CULTURE. 

terior, and the amount produced throughout the kingdom 
increases but slowly. During the ten years, from 1843 to 
1853, the increase was only six thousand bales, and the 
product of the latter year was sixty-five thousand bales. 
Four-fifths of the Brazilian crop is exported to Great 
Britain. The first production of cotton in that country 
was almost simultaneous with the first raised in the United 
States. Its export to England began in 1781, and it was 
1784, three years after, that eight bags of cotton, shipped 
from the United States to England, were seized on the 
ground that so much cotton could not be produced in the 
United States. 

The growth of cotton m Brazil is not likely for many 
years, and perhaps never, to attain any great importance. 
Along the coast the climate is unfavorable, and the rav- 
ages of insects are such as to make the cotton crop very 
uncertain. In the interior provinces, the difticulties of 
raising it are not so great ; but the sparseness of the popu- 
lation and the slowness and the almost insuperable obstacles 
in the way of transportation of what is produced, must 
limit the amount grown. 

Pernambuco is the principal cotton growing province 
of Brazil ; but between the years 1828 and 1845, the ex- 
ports from Pernambuco declined to such an extent as to 
make a poor showing for cotton in Brazil. In 1828, there 
were exported a little over seventy thousand bales of one 
hundred and sixty pounds each ; in 1845, seven years 
after, the export was a little over twenty-six thousand 
bales of one hundred and sixty pounds each. 

There is no authentic statement as to the jirecise time 
when cotton was cultivated in the British Colonies of 
North America, now the United States. It is probable 
that, from the settlement of the country, a little was raised 
in most of the southern colonies. In a j^amphlet on the 
attractions of North America, published very early in 
1600, a year or two after Jamestown was settled, it is 



corroisr culture. 155 

stated that cotton would grow as well in Virginia as in 
Italy ; and in the very last part of that century, another 
authority states that Sir Edmund Andros, while Governor 
of Virginia, in 1693, " gave j)articular marks of his favor 
towards the propagation of cotton, which, since his time, 
has been much neglected." Up to the time of the RevO; 
lutionary War, so little was raised that it deserves no 
mention as one of the American exports. Within ten 
years from the Declaration of Peace between the United 
States and England, cotton culture received an amazing 
impetus from the discovery, by Eli Whitney, of a rapid 
and effectual mode of separating Upland cotton from 
its seed. The manner in which the attention of young 
Whitney was draAvn to the invention of the cotton-gin is 
a matter of so great interest that the foliosving brief 
statement is copied frojn the memoir of Eli Whitney, writ- 
ten by Professor Olmstead, of Yale College : 

" After leaving college, Mr. Whitney, who had already 
distinguished himself for his mechanical skill, and for bold 
and self-relying enterprise, almost immediately went to 
the State of Georgia for the purpose of fulfilling his en- 
gagement with a gentleman to reside in his family as a 
private teacher." This was in the latter part of the year 
1792. On his way to Savannah by ship, he had as a com- 
panion of his voyage, the widow of the then late General 
Greene, so distinguished in the annals of our revolutionary 
history. On his arrival at Savannah, being but partially 
recovered from the small pox, which he had by inoculation, 
he was invited by Mrs. Greene to spend a little time at her 
residence at Mulberry Grove, near that city. He soon 
learned that another teacher had been employed in the 
place which he had ex^jected. Mrs. Greene at once kindly 
and generously j^roj^osed to him to commence the study 
of the law under her hospitable roof, and to remain in her 
family as long as he should choose. He had not been 
long with her before he gave striking proofs of his median- 



156 COTTON CULTURE. 

ical ingenuity, wlilcli attracted the attention of Mrs. G., 
and led her to feel that Whitney could meet any exigency 
in which invention and skill of this kind were required. 
Not long after, Mrs. Greene was visited by several gentle- 
men from upper Georgia, principally officers, who had 
served with her husband in the war. Of these were Maj ors 
Brewer, Forsythe, and Pendleton. They conversed 
largely upon the situation and prospects of agiiculture in 
the opening upper country of the South, and expressed 
regret that no means had been devised to clear the Upland 
cotton from the seed, saying, that unless such a point could 
be obtained, it was vain to raise cotton for the market. 
Mrs. Greene interrupted their conversation, by saying, 
" Gentlemen, apply to my young friend, Mr. Whitney ; he 
can make anything." After showing them, as the results 
of his ingenuity, the various mechanical contrivances 
which he had devised and executed, she introduced him to 
ibe circle, who at once made known the object to be ac- 
complished, and the difficulties which were in the way. 
Whitney, in reply, disclaimed any superiority of mechan- 
ical genius, and added that he had never in his life seen 
either cotton or cotton seed, Mrs. Greene then said : " I 
have accomplished my aim. Mr. Whitney is a very de- 
serving young man, and to bring him into notice was my 
object. The interest which our friends now feel for him 
will, I hope, lead to his getting some employment to ena- 
ble him to prosecute the study of. the law." 

The hint given to Whitney by these gentlemen was not 
lost upon him. The season for cotton in the seed was 
passed, but Whitney went to Savannah at once, and after 
II long search, at last lighted upon a small quantity ; with 
this he returned to his temporary home and commtmicated 
Ills intentions to Mr. Miller, who was then a teacher in the 
family and afterwards married Mrs. Greene. A room was 
assigned to him to which Mr. Miller and Mrs. Greene 
were the only persons who Avere admitted, or who knew 



COTTOX CULTURE. 157 

anytliing of his project. His materials and tools were 
both limited; even tlie wire which he required could not 
Ibe found at Savannah, and he was forced to draw it for 
himself. Near the close of the winter the machine was so 
nearly completed as to leave no douht of its success. 
Mrs. Greene was naturally eager to communicate to her 
friends the fact of an invention which promised at once a 
great staple, precisely adapted to their soil, occupation for 
their hands, and immense wealth, as the result of an ex- 
tended culture of an article which had been thought of 
little worth. She invited to her house gentlemen of 
distinction from different parts of the State, and conducted 
her assembled guests to ijie room in which they saw with 
astonishment a machine which promised such splendid re- 
sults for all their interest. 

The petition for a patent was presented to Mr. Jeffer- 
son, the Secretary of State, June 20, 1793. Mr. Jefferson 
at once took a strong interest in the invention and its 
originator, and assured Mr. Whitney that his request 
should be granted as soon as the model was lodged at the 
Patent Office. In consequence of unavoidable delays, 
however, the patent was not secured in form until several 
months afterwards. 

Like many other inventors, Mr. Whitney was destined 
to wade through a series of tedious and vexatious litiga- 
tions before he realized anything like an adequate personal 
return for his ingenuity and skill. But the effect of his 
invention was immediately seen in the extraordinary in- 
crease in the cultivation of Green Seed or Upland cotton. 
Within fourteen years of the time when he first made the 
discovery, the importance of the invention and its effect 
upon Southern agriculture and prosperity are set forth in 
terms as follows, by Judge Johnson, of Savannah, in a 
suit to sustain the validity of Whitney's patent : 

" The Green Seed is a species much more productive 
than the Black, and by nature adapted to a much greater 



158 COTTON CULTURE. 

yariety of climate. But by reason of the strong adher- 
ence of the fibre to the seed, without the aid of some more 
powerful machine for separating it than any formerly 
known among us, the cultivation of it wou.ld never have 
been made an object. The machine of which Mr, Wliit- 
ney claims the mvention so facilitates the preparation of 
this species for iise, that the cultivation of it has suddenly 
become an object of infinitely greater national importance 
than that of the other species ever can be. With regard 
to the utility of this discovery, the whole interior of the 
Southern States was languishing, and its inhabitants 
emigrating for want of some object to engage their atten- 
tion and employ their industry, when the invention of this 
machine at once opened views to them which set the whole 
country in active motion. From childhood to age it has 
presented to us a lucrative employment. Individuals 
who were depressed with poverty and sunk in idleness, 
have suddenly risen to wealth and respectability. Our 
debts have been paid oiF, our capitals have increased, and 
our lands trebled themselves in vahie. We cannot express 
the Aveight of the obligation which the country owes to 
this invention. The extent of it cannot now be seen." 

A study of the statistical tables, giving the product of 
cotton for diiferent years, its price, the supplies that come 
from various parts of the world, and the distribution of 
the cotton raised throughout the world, so far as can be 
ascertained, will serve to impress ujoon our minds the won- 
derful commercial results that have followed this invention 
of Eli Whitney, and will throw much light upon the ques- 
tion as to whether the cotton culture of the United States 
is likely to be impaired by the amounts produced in other 
countries. When the gin was invented, England received 
from America only one bag in a hundred and twenty-six. 
Three years after, in 1795, she received one in twenty-five, 
and at the beginning of the present century, about one- 
eighth of the importation was from America. In 1820, 



COTTOX CULTURE. 159 

aboxit two-tliirds of all the cotton brouglit into England, 
was from the United States. At present, or rather at the 
outbreak of tlie late Civil War, England was dependent 
on America for seven-eighths of her cotton supply. From 
1806 to 1830, the crop of the United States did not vary- 
greatly from a million of bales annually. From 1830 to 
1840 there was a steady increase, though not witliout fluc- 
tuations produced by unfavorable seasons, until, in the lat- 
ter year (1840,) for the first time, the crop went a little 
over two millions. 

Between 1840 and 1850 the annual crop ranged between 
two and three millions, except on three years, when it fell 
back to about a million and three-quarters. The crop of 
1852 was the first in America that ever went over three 
millions. Fi'om that time to the crash of the cotton m- 
terest, produced by the war ten years after, the crop 
ranged between three and three and a half millions, ex- 
cept on three years, as in the fonner decade, when, on ac- 
count of an unfavorable season or the worm, it fell below 
two millions. The cotton interest was never so thriving 
as immediately before the war. By the law of increase 
which we have observed in the foregoing statistics, the 
crop of 1862 should have been four millions of bales, and 
by the same law should, in four or five years from now, 
(1867) be approximating, at least, to five millions of bales. 
A similar increase may be noted in the average price of 
cotton per pound as in the amount produced ; but the 
fluctuations here have been much greater. The highest 
price realized for any crop previous to the war was for 
that of 1820, the highest grades of which sold on an aver- 
age for about thirty-four cents per pound. It fell away in 
1830 and 1832 to nine cents as an avei'age price, and then 
continued to rise until 1836, the crop of which year sold 
for nearly seventeen cents per pound ; after which there 
was a general tliough fluctuating decline, the lowest price 
bemg realized for the crops of 1843, 1845, and 1849, 



160 COTTON CULTURE, 

wliich brought the planter but little more than six cents a 
pound. From 1849 on until 18G4 the increase was steady, 
until the outbreak of the war, and then enormously rapid. 
The average price realized for the crop sold immediately 
before the outbreak of the war was about thirteen cents. 
The value of that part of the crop which was exported, 
generally three-fourths of the whole amount raised, was 
something less than one hundred and forty millions annu- 
ally, for two or three years previous to the war. The 
lowest amount received by the planter was for the crop 
of 1831, which sold for only twenty-five millions of dol- 
lars, its average price j)er i^ound being only nine cents. 
The quantity absorbed by the home market in 1856, a lit- 
tle more than three-quarters of a million of bales, and 
worth about thirty millions of dollars, was, by a moderate 
estimate, made to produce nearly five times this sum by 
the industry applied to its manufacture in the States north 
of Virginia, In 1856 and 1857, Mr, J, B, Gribble, of New 
Orleans, prepared a table j^resenting the distribution to 
various countries of the entii-e cotton crop raised in all 
parts of the v/orld. According to his estimates, the whole 
amount produced was a little over four millions of bales. 
He assumed the average weight of packages of raw cot- 
ton to be : From the AVest Indies, a hundred and seventy- 
three pounds ; Brazil, one hundred and eighty-one ; Egypt, 
three hundred and six ; East Indies, three hundred and 
eighty-five ; and the United States, four hundred and for- 
ty. Reducing all these bales to four hundred pounds 
each, he arrives at the following conclusions Avith regard 
to the crop of 1856 and 1857, which may be taken with 
very slight modifications as the true exponent of the cot- 
ton interest, and the best summary of cotton statistics at 
the time when this great staple was at its maximum de- 
velopment, just previous to the war: The product of the 
West Indies, a little over four thousand bales ; of Brazil, 
five thousand five hundred ; of Egypt, eighty-six thous- 



COTTON CULTURE. IGl 

and, four liunclred and forty-five; of the East Indies, four 
hundred forty-five thousand, six hundred and thirty-seven ; 
and for the United States, three millions, eight hundred 
and eighty thousand, five hundred and eighty — or nearly 
seven-eighths of the product of the world. 

Of this whole amount, a little less than half went di- 
rectly to the English mills ; one-sixth was manufactured 
in America, and the balance m other European States. 

A study of the tables prepared by Mr. Gribble, those 
contained in the 'New Orleans Price Current, and those in 
the New York Shij^ping and Commercial List, though va- 
rying considerably in their details, as all such tables will, 
and none of them more than proximately correct, has 
brought me to the following conclusions : 

I. — The regular increase in the growth of American 
cotton from the year 1830 to the outbreak of the Civil 
War was at the rate of an additional million of bales 
about every ten years. 

II. — The fluctuation in the amount of American cotton 
produced has always been moderate ; thus, for instance, 
between 1830 and 1840, the crop in three years went be- 
low the figures of 1830; then again, between 1840 and 
1850, the crop went three times below the figure of 1840; 
thus apparently establishing the rule that drought, frosts, 
or the caterpillar, may be expected materially to diminish 
only three crops in ten on American soil. 

III. — When a crop is once stowed in bottoms at the 
great exporting towns, the country to which it shall go is 
a matter determined almost entirely by the flicilities for 
manufacturing Avhich different countries afibrd ; and as in 
England there is, at present, a combination on the larg- 
est scale of cheap motive power with cheap labor, Eng- 
land will continue to receive the largest amounts of cotton 
as- long as her coal is abundant and low-priced. In 1860, 
she raanuflxctured half the cotton produced in the world. 

IV. — The cotton manufactures of Great Britain have 



162 COTTOX CULTURE. 

advanced pari passu witli the development of cotton 
growing in the United States ; her looms, spindles, and 
her markets, are all adjusted to the staple of American 
Upland, and this is the style of cotton of which she re- 
quires the greatest quantities. American cotton cannot be 
replaced in her mills to advantage by that grown either in 
India or Africa, and no other manufacturing nation is pre- 
pared to underbid England in the production of the finer 
qualities of cotton fabrics, especially muslins. Up to 18G0 
the cotton supply from other sources than the United 
States had increased in some cases very slowly, and in oth- 
ers decreased ; the principle increase being from East In- 
dia and Africa, which furnish the poorest staple. 

V. — England can feel no reliance for her cotton supply 
upon any other country than the United States, and 
the American supply is, in general, very reliable whenever 
the system of labor is settled and pex'manent. Whatever 
cotton can be produced npon American soil will find a 
prompt market in England, and until the supply from 
America passes two million bales, which are necessary to 
keep all the spindles of England in motion, there is no 
probability that cotton will fall below fifteen cents, and, 
probably, it will not go so low as that for quite a number 
of years. 

About ten years before our late war, a writer in the 
London Economist, an English paper devoted to the ex- 
amination of questions like this, traced the progress of 
the cotton trade from 1838 to 1850, and the facts, as then 
known, brought him to the folio wmg conclusions : 

That the supply of cotton from other sources than the 
United States has been irregularly decreasing ; that, in- 
cluding the United States, the suj^ply from all quarters 
available for English consumiDtion had, of late years, that 
is from 1840 to 1850, been falling off at the rate of a 
thousand bales a ■week, while the consumption had been 
increasing at the same time at the rate of thirty-six hun- 



COTTOIS^ CULTURE. 163 

drecT bales a Av^eek ; that in the United Slates alone, the 
growth is increasing, but limited there to about the same 
ratio as the increase of the colored laborers, that is, five 
per cent, per annum, an increase barely sufficient to sup- 
jily the growing demand for its own consumption and for 
the continent of Europe; and that, consequently, if this 
branch of industry is to increase at all, on its present foot- 
ing in Great Britain, it must be by applying a greater 
stimulus to tlie growth of cotton in other countries adapt- 
ed to its culture. The incapacity of other regions to sup- 
ply the demand being shown, the writer looks to the Brit- 
ish West India Islands, and the African and Australasian 
colonies as most likely to make up the deficiency. 

From the year 1860 to 1865 the question of the cotton 
supply was one of intense interest, on account of the al- 
most entire withdrawal of contributions to the cotton 
market from tlie American States, coupled with very grave 
doubts whether for many years, at least, the state of thmgs 
in tliose unhai^py regions would admit of settled and suc- 
cessful industry. But we have seen that under the enor- 
mous stimukis of, at times, a dollar a pound, and, most of 
the time, fifty cents and over per pound, for the last four 
years, that the supply from other countries than the Unit- 
ed States has not been greatly augmented; and now, as 
cottons are slowly declining, the figures are fiilling back 
to about what they were before the war. The efiect is 
not that the world gets along without American cottons, 
but rather that in view of the diminished suj^ply from 
America, the consumption of cotton has decreased, and 
that of linen, silk, and woolen, especially the latter, has 
increased. But this diminished consumption is an enforc- 
ed and unnatural state of things. The demand for manu- 
factured goods throughout the world is largely increasing, 
and the proper conclusion to be drawn from all these facts 
and figures is, that no part of the world, during the pres- 
ent century, has oftered or is likely to offer so large a field 



164 COTTOX CULTURE. 

for common, unskilled labor, with returns so certain and 
so generous as tlie cotton States of the North American 
Republic. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS AS TO VARIOUS CLASSES OF PER- 
SONS WHO PROPOSE TO ENGAGE IN COTTON GROWING. 

With such attractions and natural advantages as the 
cotton States possess, and with commercial reasons so 
cogent as those presented in the last chapter for believing 
in a future for cotton growers in America more brilliant 
than anything in the past, it is not to be presumed that 
political disorder will, for any great length of time, seri- 
ously embarrass the cotton interest. For a while it must 
be supposed that the cotton growing interest will be 
greatly deranged. There has been and will continue to 
be considerable difficulty every spring in obtaining good 
seed ; the caterpillar and the army-worm are more likely 
to commit their depredations in seasons when the breadth 
of lands in cotton is smaller than usual, and the culture 
has been languid and imperfect. With cotton at an 
average of ten cents per pound, tlie South for thirty years 
before the war was rapidly increasing in wealth, and the 
law of increment appeared to be such that the crop doub- 
led itself every twenty years. Now, with cotton at two 
or three times that price, and a larger amount of labor 
seeking employment throughout the country than ever be- 
fore, it is not credible that political diiferences and uncer- 
tainties can long arrest the march of the great laws of 
political economy. It requires little sagacity to jDredict 
that this transition state cannot last long, since society is 
so rigidly controlled by its material interests as not to 



COTTON CULTURE, 165 

permit the contiiniance for a great lengtli of time of such 
a state of things. One great effect of the recent radical 
changes in Southern society has been the openhag of the 
cotton fields of the South to the labor of all races, instead 
of tlieir being restricted to the labor of one, and in giving 
scope to every class of industrial enterprises and to varied 
forms of organized labor. Up to the year 1860 there was, 
practically, but one Avay of raising cotton, but one class 
of persons who performed the labor, and but a single and 
iTuvarying system for applying that labor to the soil. 
Now those lands can be and are likely to be possessed and 
tilled, in many instances by large joint stock companies, 
whose operations extend over an area of perhaps twenty 
thousand acres, and whose business reaches annually to 
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Enterprises like this 
were impracticable and unknown under the former system. 
Very large amounts of cotton, greater, perhaps, than by 
any other method, will be grown, as grass and wheat and 
corn are produced, in the Northern and North-western 
States, by the labor of the land-owner himself, who, with 
the aid of one or two assistants in summer, cultivates the 
forty, sixty, or eighty acres of which he holds the fee 
simple. There will be opportunities, also, for the success- 
ful application of another class of labor to the cultivation 
of this ci-op ; the owners of those large tracts of from 
three hundred to three and four thousand acres, having no 
means of cultivating such a breadth, will be very willing 
to rent it to any industrious person who, without capital, 
has a disposition to work, and the proprietor will receive 
his pay in a share of the crop raised. As soon as the 
composure of society is such as to give ample security to 
both life and property, and such is believed to be the case 
by the Northern and European States, tliere must be a 
large influx of both population and wealth into the cotton 
region. These accessions to society then will naturally be 
divided into three general classes. 



166 COTTOX CULTURE. 

First — The large capitalist and the joint stock com- 
panies of Northern cities, who will engage in cotton 
raising with the same energy, the same skill, and the same 
generous approj^riation of funds which have characterized 
their operations in coal mines, railroads, oil wells in Penn- 
sylvania, and stamping mills in the Rocky Mountains. 

Second — A larger class will be those who bring some 
capital, a large amount of intelligence, sagacity, and in- 
dustry, and who propose to cultivate cotton farms where 
this shall be a specialty, but by no means an exclusive 
crop. This class are the best that can migrate to any 
country, and if they go South in any considerable num- 
bers, they will soon impose a law of their own upon so- 
ciety. 

Third — A class much larger than either of the two men- 
tioned above will be the common laborer, the impoverish- 
ed American, the German, the Irish, and eventually the 
Chinese, who will engage in the labor of tilling and har- 
vesting the croj) in precisely the same spirit as that iu 
which they have built railroads, tunneled mountains, ex- 
cavated canals, and removed the fertilizing deposits upon 
the Lobos Islands to the wheat fields and tlie gardens of 
England and America. A majority of them, probably, 
will be employed by the large capitalists and the stock 
companies; others more thrifty and self-reliant will, at 
first, find employment with the small producers, and from 
this will soon come to be themselves planters on soil 
which they have earned by hard labor. 

There are certain parts of the cotton growing regions 
which are especially suited to each of these classes, and 
this treatise cannot, perhaps, be concluded by anything 
more useful or practical than a few suggestions to each of 
these vai'ious classes of immigrants, the advice, if such it 
may be called, being directed, mainly, to such questions 
as naturally arise with regard to soil, climate, salubrity, 
f icility of transportation, and social surroundings. 



COTTON CULTURE. 167 

The large capitalist and the joint stock company who 
go into the cotton business precisely as they would into an 
oil speculation, or a silver mine, will, of course, make ev- 
ery other consideration bend to that of profit. The ques- 
tion with them will be, where and how to produce cotton 
in such a Avay that a hundred thousand dollars invested 
in the business Avill yield from twenty-five to fifty thousand 
dollars annual returns. The salubrity of a country, the 
agreeableness of the inhabitants as neighbors, the distance 
from schools, churches, and villages, are matters of minor 
importance with those who are seeking principally the al- 
mighty dollar. The two grand requisites which the cap- 
italist asks for in order to make a profitable investment, 
are a fertile soil, and easy and cheap access. Of course he 
must feel himself, to a great extent, secure from inunda- 
tion and, if possible, from the ravages of insects. He 
will hardly look at any other lands than rich alluvions, of 
which there is a great abundance throughout the cotton 
belt. He will find the requisite degree of fertility in any 
of the superior cotton lands which are capable of produc- 
ing a bale or more per acre, without manure and without 
rotation. These on the tinted map, "which faces Part IL, 
Chapter I., are colored red. By examining that map, it 
Avill be seen that four of the Gulf States furnish a large 
body of land of this description, and his choice "will nat- 
urally be made of one of these four States, Alabama, Missis- 
sippi, Louisiana, including the southeastern corner of Ar- 
kansas, and Texas. The superior lands of South Carolina 
and Georgia are much more limited in extent, held at 
higher figures, and not so much in market. This is true 
to quite an extent of that admirable body of black land 
in Alabama which lies between the two main rivers of that 
State, the Alabama and the Tombigbee, and which is fully 
described in the chapter connected with the cotton map. 
As regards health, these cotton fields of Middle Alabama 
are more desirable than any other rich lands in the South, 



168 COITOX CULTURE. 

unless it be the black prairies of Texas, which they very 
mucli resemble. They are entirely secure from overflow 
and quite easy of access both by river navigation and 
railroad ; at least, the access to Mobile and the Gulf of 
Mexico is ready. The objection in that regard is, that 
communication towards the North is circuitous and ex- 
pensive, and in a few years another serious objection with 
a company or capitalist that proposes to connect the man- 
ufacture with the production of cotton, will be the lack 
of fuel. Coal, said to be bituminous in quality and very 
excellent, exists in Alabama. " A vein of this coal is first 
seen," says De Bow in his Industrial Resources, " in the 
bed of the Black Warrior Kiver, near Tuscaloosa, and pur- 
sues a north-east direction until it crosses the Alabama and 
Coosa Rivers at, or just above, their falls, and probably 
thence passes into Georgia." But the bed has never been 
worked to any considerable extent, and it is still problem- 
atical whether it is suflicient in width and dip to furnish 
large amounts. At present, on the Southern borders of 
this triangle of land there are extensive forests which, for 
some years at least, will supply all necessary fuel for man- 
ufacturing and domestic purposes; so that the difiiculty 
suggested is by no means formidable or insuperable. It 
is simply a matter to be taken into consideration by the 
cnpitalist, who may be seeking an investment in cotton 
lands, which shall be in all respects most fortunate and 
judicious. In the Trans-Mississippi region, that is to say, 
in the river bottoms and black prairies of Texas, there is 
presented another large body of superior lands, similar to 
those of Alabama in the color of the soil, almost identi- 
cally situated in regard to communication with the Gulf, 
and capable of satisfying any one as to their depth of loam 
and the permanence of their fertility. They are some- 
what larger in extent than those of Alabama, and have 
the advantage of being virgin soil, the greater part of 
which has never felt the share. It is less favorably situ- 



COITOX CULTURE. 169 

ated, however, with respect to moisture, especially the 
western part. The seasons of Alabama arc such, that all 
crops that can be cultivated in that climate grow well and 
come to maturity. In Texas, particularly Western Texas, 
there is moisture enough for cotton and for grass, but 
three years out of five the corn crop is a failure for want 
of rain. The objection suggested to the best lands of 
Alabama, that they are difficult of access from the North, 
applies with still greater force to the cotton region of 
Texas. Railroads from Vicksburg and Memphis have 
partially penetrated to those regions from the east and 
north-east, but land carriage of a crop so bulky as cotton 
for a distance of four hundred or five hundred miles is so 
tedious and expensive as to be well nigh impracticable on 
anythmg like a large scale. On the other hand these 
lands, considering their very fine quality, are cheap ; they 
can be obtained for about a hundred j^er cent, less than 
lands of equal intrinsic value in the older States. From 
ten to twenty-five dollars per acre, according to situation, 
will place the capitalist in possession of lands admirably 
suited to his purposes. How far cheapness on the one 
hand outweighs remoteness on the other, and to what extent 
intrinsic value is offset by difficulty of access, are matters 
about which good business men will differ. If a j)erma- 
nent investment is soiight, and it is proposed to- unite 
manufactures with agriculture, the want of fuel would be 
eventually a more embarrassing question in Texas than in 
Alabama. According to Haldeman's revised edition of 
Taylor's work on the Coal Regions of the United States, 
coal exists on the Trinity River two hundred miles above 
Galveston, near Nacogdoches, and also near Austin, in 
considerable quantities; but like the carbonaceous de- 
l^osits of Alabama, those of Texas have never been work- 
ed, and it is doubtful whether they will be able to supply 
the place for fuel of the pine forests of which there is 
great extent in the eastern part of the Slate. 
8 



170 COTTOX CULTURE. 

These facilities for cotton growing and attractions to 
capitalists in the two States which lie to the right and to 
the left of the region that drains into the lower Mississippi 
Valley have been first discussed, in order to show that the 
last mentioned section presents decidedly a more attrac- 
tive field than either. 

Let us turn now to this teeming valley and examine that 
part of it which lies below Memphis, with a view to in- 
vestments in cotton planting. From the mouth of the 
Mississijipi up to where it receives the waters of Red Riv- 
er, the banks of the stream, though inexhaustibly fertile, 
are unsuited to cotton. That part of Louisiana which lies 
south of Red River, is the sugar bowl of the Union ; the 
soil is not sufficiently light and sandy for cotton. It is a 
firm, strong, tenacious, clayey loam, rich in vegetable 
mould, the natural growth of which is cypress, live oak 
and palmetto, and cotton, when planted there, presents a 
rank and luxurious growth ; but the vigor of the jjlant 
does not expend itself upon the fruit, as is the case a hun- 
dred miles forther north. At Red River the cotton lands 
commence; the lowest part of the Red River valley, for 
seventy-five miles before it empties into the Mississippi, is 
almost an unbroken swamp. The land is of the greatest 
fertility, but is covered almost every year by inundations, 
the water standing upon it in some places three inches 
deep, and in others twenty feet, and depositing annually a 
layer of fine fertilizing mud. If some Avay could be de- 
vised for redeeming this part of the Red River valley from 
annual overflow, several hundred thousand acres of land, 
as rich as the bottoms of the Nile, would be added to the 
cotton lands of Louisiana. Ascending the stream we find, 
in the vicinity of Alexandria, and for a short distance up 
the valley, a group of sugar plantations ; above these, as 
far up as Shreveport, and for a hundred miles beyond, in 
Arkansas and Texas, cotton alone is planted. Among the 
superior cotton lands of the South, those of Red River 



COTTON CULTURE, 171 

stand i^reeminent ; they are easily protected from overflow, 
the soil is an alluvion, as rich in the elements of vegetable 
life at the depth of fifty feet as at the sui-face ; the seasons 
are well suited to the growth of corn and various other 
edible crops; and this magnificent vaUey is flanked on 
either side by a wide extent of pine forests, veined with 
narrow but fertile creek bottoms, affording a broad range 
for the stock of river plantations, and a supply of fuel 
that it will take generations to exhaust. The objections 
to this country are the miasms of the river bottom and 
the absence of good water, requiring the construction of 
a great number of cisterns, or of arrangements for filtrat- 
ing the river water; but with all due allowance for these 
discounts, there are no lands in the world which offer 
greater inducements than these of Red River, to the large 
capitalist or the enterprising stock company who aspire to 
brand their cotton bales by the thousand, A bale and a 
half and two bales per acre is no uncommon yield ; for 
something like eight months in the year the access to New 
Orleans and the Gulf by steamboats is unembarrassed. 
No part of the whole Southern country can present so 
many instances of magnificent fortunes, accumulated by a 
few years industry, as might have been found in 1860, in 
passing as the traveler did for four hundred miles from 
Alexandria u^ through a series of superb planting estates. 
If, instead of descending Red River for the purpose 
of reaching the Mississippi, the traveler should pass 
directly east from Shreveport, in the direction of Vicks- 
burg, he would for some seventy-five miles ride through 
pine woods broken here and there by a little strip 
of fertile land. This section is marked green on the 
cotton map. On approaching the valley of the Ouach- 
ita, the scene undergoes a sudden and total change. 
The pine hills suddenly stop, the growth become* cy- 
press, cane, sycamore, sweet gum, tupelo gum, and 
poplar, all indicative of the richest soil and the most 



17r2 COTTOK CULTUEE. 

perfect aclnptation to the growtli of cotton. These lands 
extend eastward to the waters of the Mississippi, a dis- 
tance of some sixty miles. Here, at Vicksburg, we may- 
pass over into the State of Mississippi, and on the right 
bank of the river, as we ascend, there is a similar body of 
land from twenty-five to forty miles in width, and extend- 
ing all the way from Vicksburg to Memphis. The first, 
and we may say almost the only question which the capi- 
talist will ask with reference to this entire tract of land is : 
"What parts of this uneqnaled soil are exempt from annual 
inundation ? The facilities for transportation are almost 
unparalleled; on thousands and tens of thousands of 
plantations there would be no practical difticulty in build- 
ing the gin-house or the factory in such a way that the 
bales of cotton might be allowed to slide directly from the 
press-room to the deck of a steamboat. The soil here is 
quite uniform in the degree of its fertility, as may be seen 
by the uniform growth with which it is covered. It may 
be remarked, also, that the disasters of the late war have 
fallen heavy upon this region, deranging titles, divesting 
estates, and placing immense bodies of these lauds within 
easy reach of capital. The plantations which lie dh-ectly 
upon the Mississippi have this advantage, that they are in 
easy and immediate communication with the great cities 
of the Northwest, so that the produce of these lands could 
be taken at once cither up or down the river, and discharg- 
ed at St. Louis, at New Orleans, at Memphis, at Louisville, 
or Cincinnati, according to the drift of commerce and the 
facilities for manufacture. An establishment such as is 
described in Chapter V, Part II, of this Treatise, might 
be located in Missouri, in Southern Illinois, in "Western 
Tennessee, or on the Ohio River, and receive its supplies 
of cotton in the seed from plantations five hundred miles 
distant, and the freight be so moderate as to be more than 
offset by the cheapness of labor and the abundance of 
JDreadgtuffs in the more northern situations. There is no 



COTTOX CULTURE. 173 

difficulty at all with regard to fuel in all this region ; the 
entire valley is covered by a dense forest growth, the re- 
moval of which, for purposes of fuel, will probably be 
found quite too slow to meet tlie demand for more open 
land ; and when all the forests near the front are cut away, 
a flat boat, loaded with several hundred tons of coal, can 
be floated down from the upper Ohio and landed at any 
l^oint along the great river for a few cents more per bush- 
el than would be its cost at Cincinnati. 

Everything in the situation and in the natural sur- 
roundings and facilities afforded by this region, seems to 
point to operations to be conducted on a large scale, 
with command of ample capital ; all the improvements 
of modern ingenuity and business enterprise being 
made to contribute to magnificent results, where the 
inexhaustible fertility of the soil, taken in connection 
with the constant and cheap access to all other parts 
of the country, shall present a combination of agri- 
cultural and manuficturing skill which has never yet been 
equalled on this continent. Here is a soil and climate 
perfectly adapted to the growth of cotton, in connection 
with the sources of a motive power inexhaustible as the 
coal beds of the West, and all washed by the waters of a 
mighty inland ocean so deep that the Great Eastern might 
be floated a thousand miles inland, and then steam direct 
fi'om the gin-houses that will dot the bank of the mighty 
stream to the Liverpool docks. 

But these rank and wide alluvions, teeming with luxuri- 
ant vegetable growth, are not the only cotton lands of the 
South. There are sections which are as attractive to the 
farmer of moderate means, who desires to establish a 
Southern home, as the former to the capitalist hunting for 
a lucrative investment. Tlie grand objection to the great- 
er part of the very fertile lands above described, is that 
they are unsuitable for homes and as locations for family 
i-esidences. The surface is commonly a dead level ; the 



174 COTTON CULTURE. 

water, except that which, descends from the clouds, never 
good ; the air often loaded with feverish miasms and 
swarming with musqiiitoes. He who seeks a suitable 
place where he may build him a home, in an air that is free 
and wholesome ; where the water is pure and abundant ; 
the scenery not without some picturesque attractions, and 
the social surroundings agreeable, Avill not select an allu- 
vial tract. By reference to the cotton map in the early 
part of tbis Treatise, a large breadth of couutry will ap- 
pear tinted yellow; this indicates hill lands where, in gen- 
eral, the soil, without special treatment, does not yield a 
bale to the acre, but where the other conditions of com- 
fort and well-being are much more easily supplied. These 
are the sections that should be visited by the man who 
proposes to buy a hundred or two acres, and to raise, 
among other crops, twenty or thirty bales of cotton. 
Pei-haps the first locality that will attract a man witli 
views and plans of this character, will be the country south 
of Nashville, bounded on the east by the Cumberland 
Mountains, and on the west by the valley of the Lower Ten- 
nessee. There is no first class cotton land here except, per- 
haps, a few narrow strij^s along the river bank in North 
Alabama. The seasons here are too short for the produc- 
tion of full crops, but in a great number of minds this cir- 
cumstance would be considered as more than oflset by the 
extreme beauty of Middle Tennessee, the lovely slopes of 
emerald, the noble wealth of oaken forests, the clear rnn- 
ning streams, the perfect healthiness of the climate, and 
the high tone of social refinement and morality that per- 
vades the community. 

Another redeeming feature by all means deserves men- 
tion. With the Tennessee farmer, cotton is only one of sev- 
eral crops which he can successfally cultivate; the. land 
produces excellent tobacco. A few years ago Tennessee 
was the leading State in the growth of corn. The apple, 
pear, and peach tree, flourish; hemp is a profitable crop, 



COTTON CULTURE. i<0 

and wheat is largely raised. The titles to lands have been 
considerably disturbed by the war, and there are a large 
number of acres in every town that can be obtained at 
moderate prices. Except in a few instances the lands of 
Tennessee are divided into tracts of moderate size, seven- 
ty-one acres being the average of improved land in each 
farm, so that the man of moderate means who is looking 
for a farm Avhere he can, in a favorable season, raise a few 
thousand pounds of cotton with most of the other Ameri- 
can crops, need not pass south of the Tennessee River in 
liis search. The same remarks here made of Middle Ten- 
nessee apply with some modifications to the north-eastern 
counties of Mississsippi, and the northern parts of Ala- 
bama and Georgia. Much of the surface here is broken 
and sterile ; in many counties wheat is the leading crop, 
but nearly every farmer raises a little cotton. The land- 
scapes are not so attractive as those of Middle Tennessee, 
nor the water so good, tliere being, in this respect, wide 
differences in adjoining counties. The northern and par- 
ticularly the north-western counties of Arkansas are ad- 
mirably adapted both as to soil, climate, and the degree 
of moi-sture, to the wants of the cotton farmer as distin- 
guished from the cotton j^lanter. The present objection 
of remoteness and difficulty of access is being rapidly 
overcome by the building of railroads ; there is no part of 
the entire South where the man of moderate means can 
obtain, on better terms, a tract of, say two hundred acres, 
on which he may grow corn, wheat, oats, potatoes of both 
kinds, and send to market from ten to twenty bales of cot- 
ton, from which to realize the principal part of his clear 
income. As farming can be successfully combined with 
cotton growing in the sections just mentioned, so the joint 
production of cotton and beef is eminently j^racticable in 
a wide range of counties in the northern part of Texas. 
They are mostly prairie lands, where stock-raising is the 
first and the natui'al occupation of the inhabitants ; but 



176 COTTOX CULTURE. 

the soil and climate both ai-e well adapted to cotton. That 
region is still, for the most part, wild and sparsely inhab- 
ited ; lands of great intrinsic value can be obtained at 
very moderate prices, the average not rising above five 
dollars an acre. 

The immigrant Avho carries into the cotton growing 
States no capital but his two hands, must, of course, at 
first, be almost wholly governed in the selection of his 
field of labor by the gi'and consideration of demand. 
Waiving all other questions, the laborer will be certain to 
go where he can get the highest wages; and the large 
planter, the capitalist, or the joint stock company, who 
are in possession of a tract of alluvial soil on some of the 
great navigable streams, will offer him the greatest in- 
ducements. With cotton at thirty cents a pound, on a 
soil that produces a bale and more to the acre, there is no 
reason why the laborer should not receive handsome wages ; 
the cotton grower who pays two dollars a day to a good 
hand can, if his crop succeeds, clear over two hundred 
dollars on each hand. Wlien cotton declines in price, the 
value of labor in the cotton crop must fall ; but as long as 
it continues at the present high figure, there is no reason 
why the laborer should not enjoy the benefit of it as well 
as the land-owner or the speculator. The more intelligent 
and thrifty a laborer is, the more rapidly will he rise from 
the position of a hireling; there is no need that the indus- 
trious and economical working man should long remain 
landless. The savings of a single year will enable him to 
buy as much land as he can till in cotton ; as soon as he 
can secure a title or get legal possession of fifteen acres 
and a mule, he can begin to be independent, and from this 
beginning, hard work, economy, and thrift will, in a few 
years, make him a hundred-bale planter. It should be re- 
marked, however, that much precaution is required if he 
would avoid loss of time and the impairing of his consti- 
tution by sickness. The rich cotton lands are, generally 



COn^OX CTJLTUKE. 177 

speaking, malarious ; chill and fever, to some extent, he 
cannot remain exempt from, but two or three simple rules, 
strictly observed, will enable the laborer on swamp land 
to retain his health in a large i^roportion of cases. 

First — No night work. The air of a malarious bottom 
is healthy enough while the sun falls upon it, but at dusk 
the jioison begins to settle and enters the system through 
tlie pores as well as through the lungs. 

Second — Flannel next to the skin the year round. It is 
more important in southern than in northern climates, be- 
cause the contrast between the temperature of mid-day 
and midnight is much greater. 

Third — At the time of the early frosts and throughout 
the Avinter, the laborer should, by the terms of his con- 
tract, be furnished with a cup of hot coffee early in the 
morning. No other drink is so well suited to counteract 
the febrile tendencies of that season; it is far more effec- 
tual and less mischievous than any alcoholic drink. 

With regard to the summer heat of the more elevated 
and northerly parts of the Gulf States, Arkansas and Ten- 
nessee, we find the line of mean summer temparature start- 
ing from near the centre of the coast of North Carolina, 
passing nearly westward through the centre of South 
Carolina and Georgia ; thence it turns northward through 
Northern Alabama across Tennessee and the western ex- 
tremity of Kentucky into Southern Illinois. Thence it 
bears southward again, through Southern Missouri and 
Northern Arkansas. 

The Anglo-Saxon has never considered it any particular 
hardship to till the soil in Missouri, yet its summer heat is 
as great as that of Middle and Northern Georgia, and the 
temperature and health of Southern Illinois will not com- 
])ixre favorably with those of Middle Tennessee. A sur- 
vey of the map connected with this volume will show a 
broad tract of cotton country lying in Georgia, South 
Carolina, Northern Mississipjn, Alabama, Arkansas, and 
8* 



178 C01T0:S^ CULTURE. 

Texas, the land of farms, not of plantations, on which a 
million and a half of bales have been i^roduced in a given 
year, of which a very large proportion was grown by white 
labor previous to the changes inaugurated in 1861. 

Not more than half of the surflice of this region is 
likely ever to be brought under the plow. As a general 
rule, the productive capacity of the better half of these 
lands may be put at three hundred pounds per acre of gin- 
ned cotton, although with intelhgent and scientific culture, 
the average might easily be from four to five hundred 
pounds. 

Let us now see what advantages the small farmer, who 
goes there for the purpose of engaging in the production 
of cotton, will have over the "Western farmer. He can, in 
general, get a hundred acres of this land for a sum rang- 
ing somewhere between five hundi-ed and two thousand 
dollars, according to the state of cultivation and quality 
of the buildings. Allowing five hundred more for stock 
and tools, he can commence cotton growing. On the sup- 
position that his field force amounts to four hands, at least 
during the busy season, he will be justified in planting 
about thirty acres in cotton. These thirty acres should 
produce him twenty bales of cotton of four hundred 
pounds each. These, at twenty-five cents a pound, wall 
bring him two thousand dollars, of which, say five hun- 
dred may go for labor, leaving him fifteen hundred dollars 
as profit. Beside the cotton crop, he can, with the usual 
Northern industry, produce food enough to keep all the 
stock necessary on such a place and bread for his family. As 
a rule, throughout this region, stock, unless hard-worked, 
do not need over three months' feeding ; in many sections 
not two. Here we shall soon see Northern economy, the 
seed no longer wasted or misapplied, but the rich oil which 
composes twelve and a half per cent, of its weight ex- 
pressed and turned to a useful purpose ; the land no longer 
exhausted by a ruinous system of culture, but the manure 



COTTON CITLTURE. 179 

returned, and the cotton form growing richer instead of 
poorer year by year. With increasing population manu- 
factures will multiply, and most of the coarser fabrics be 
Woven within sight of the field where the staple grows. 
Many years will elapse before the finer fabrics can be pro- 
duced as successfully as they can be in the great mills of 
Manchester and Lowell. 

The experience of the world, since the outbreak of our 
civil war, has established the great superiority of North 
America as the cotton groiving region of the globe. The 
sceptre of King Cotton is not broken ; it has merely 
shifted hands. 

The possible future of cotton culture, as compared with 
the past, may be seen from the fact, that of all this vast 
region which has been so minutely described, only a very 
small fractional part has ever been converted into cotton 
fields. There are sixty-four squares on a checker-board. 
Now suppose the cotton belt to be that checker-board, and 
the fields actually planted in cotton would represent but 
one square, that is, one sixty-fourth part only of the " cot- 
ton fields of America " are, properly speaking, cotton fields. 

This statement will give a clearer concej)tion than any 
figures of the comparative infancy of cotton culture in the 
United States. The sheep from whose fleeces mankind 
derive their warmest clothing, dot ten thousand hill-sides 
in all the temperate regions of tlie earth. The Silk-worm, 
from whose golden cocoon man makes his costliest fabric, 
is confined to no zone or belt. But for the material of our 
cheapest cloth the world looks to America. And here 
millions of acres of virgin and inexhaustible soil await the 
onward march of the grand army of labor, that shall level 
the forests, turn the prairie sod, plant, cultivate and gather 
the crop whose snowy fibre, twisted by billions of spindles, 

shall FOKM THE CLOTHING OF THE EACE. 



180 COTTO]^- CULTURE. 

C H A»P T E R IX. 

COTTON SEED, COTTON SEED OIL, COTTON SEED CAKE. 

BY J. K. STPnER, ESQ. 

To every bale of cotton-lint, weighing 400 ponnds, 
there are produced about 1400 pounds of seed. Though 
for many years no good use was made of the cotton seed 
that accumulated in great heaps about the gin-houses, it 
has long been known that the kernel of the seed is rich in 
oil. As early as 1826, a gentleman in the State of Vir- 
ginia constructed a small machine by which he was ena- 
bled to express from crushed cotton seed a dark red oil, 
which, when burned in a common lard oil lamp, gave a 
fair light. No practical use was made of this discovery, 
and for many years the facts thus developed were known 
only to a few friends of the original experimenter. "When, 
however, the extensive and successful pi-oduction of cot- 
ton made cotton goods so very cheap that the' production 
of flax, and, consequently, the supply of flax seed greatly 
fell away, the proprietors of linseed oil mills began t/O 
look about in search of some substitute upon which to 
employ their crushers and presses. " Pea-nuts," " castor 
beans," cotton seed, and many other articles, were tested. 

These experimenters experienced difficulties which me- 
chanical genius subsequently overcame. When the seed 
of Upland cotton comes from the gin, it is covered with a 
thick coat of short lint, which adheres strongly to the dry, 
hard pericarp that surrounds the kernel, or meat, in the 
seed. In the absence of any contrivance by which the 
lint-coating and pericarp could be removed, it was neces- 
sary to grind or crush the seed in an ordinary burr- 
stone, or iron mill, and to put the Avhole mass into the 
boxes of the press. The oil was easily forced from the 
broken seed, but the intermatting lint immediately absorb- 
ed the greater portion of it. In the experiments made 



COTTOJSr CL'LTUEE. 181 

with the seed of Sea Island cotton, to which the lint does 
not adhere closely, and which, therefore, may be delivered 
from the gin as clean as the pericarp of a chestnut, a more 
satisf^tory yield of oil was obtained. The result, how- 
evei-, was not of a character that would induce manufac- 
turers to engage regularly in the production of cotton-seed 
oil. A few years later, mechanics constructed and patent- 
ed machines that successfully removed the lint and peri- 
carp from the kernel, after which, by means of a revolv- 
ing sci-ew, the hulled seed was separated from the trash. 

About the year 1855, some of the largest linseed oil 
mills in the country were converted into cotton-seed oil 
mills, and very soon new and extensive establishments 
were erected expressly for the manufacture of this oil. The 
principal and most successful of these mills were located, 
one in Providence, R. I., one in St. Louis, two in New 
Orleans, and two in Memphis; of these the Providence, 
one of the New Orleans, and the St. Louis m.ills alone 
survived the war. 

The supply of raw material for these establishments 
was drawn wholly from the immediate line of the great 
navigable water-courses. The mills at New Orleans, at 
Memphis, and that at St. Louis, readily contracted with 
the steamboat lines to carry cotton-seed at very low rates 
of freight on return trips, when other freight in that di- 
rection was very scarce ; the Providence Company made 
similar contracts with sailing vessels from New Orleans 
and other ports, both along the Atlantic and on the Gulf 
Coast. There was never any lack of seed ; for all these 
mills, running at their greatest capacity, could not con- 
sume the seed that could be delivered, conveniently, upon 
the banks of the Mississippi River and its lower tribu- 
. taries. 

The seed was purchased only by weight, and was usu- 
ally contracted for at ton rates. The price varied, before the 
war, from four dollars to eight dollars per ton, delivei-ed 



182 COTTON CULTURE. 

in sacks iii^on the Ibauk of the river, at some convenient 
landing; the sacks usually contained from 80 to 100 
pounds, and were suj)plied by the manufacturers, who sent 
them to the planters. "When cotton seed oil mills were 
first erected in the South, the planters, who had, pfevious 
to that time, been in the habit of allowing their cotton seed 
to rot about the gin-houses, were suddenly seized with the 
idea that this seed was a very valuable article of trade, 
and that the demand would be far beyond the supply ; 
many, therefore, began to house and take care of the seed, 
and held large quantities at prices varying from eight to 
twelve dollars a ton ; and, for a few years, the manufac- 
turers paid as high as ten dollars per ton for the seed they 
consumed. But as soon as they learned what quantity of 
seed was produced for each bale of cotton that was grown 
they put down the price ; and, in 1860, more seed was 
offered at five dollars per ton, than their mills could have 
consumed during the year. 

A proper mill for the manufacture of oil and oil-cake 
from cotton seed, should consist of a substantial building 
having three and a half stories and basement, one hundred 
feet long by forty to fifty wide. The engine should have 
power in proportion to the pi'oposed capacity of the fac- 
tory — twenty horse-power, if two pairs of five-box 
hydraulic presses are used. The hydraulic presses must 
be placed on a firm foundation, carefully laid. Heaters 
and rollers are machines made by the same machinists 
that supply the presses and pumps. Of hullers, the ma- 
chines that bear the same relation to oil that gins do 
to lint, there are two or three patterns that will do the 
work, though the best, because it is least liable to get out 
of order and has a much greater capacity than any other, 
is one invented by Abram J. Sypher, for some time an en- 
gineer in the United States Navy. This machine is in its 
appearance, in its operation, and manner of receiving 
seed, somewhat similar to a wheat thresher. The seed 



COTTON CULTURE. 183 

is delivered into tlie liuller hy an endless canvass apron ; 
it passes under a cjdiuder revolving at great speed, 
armed with steel blades, and surrounded about two-third's 
way by a concave box also armed with corresponding 
knives. As the seed is forced between these, the pericai-p, 
or hiill, is broken and forced from the kernel. The mass of 
crushed seed then falls into a great revolving sieve. The 
kernels, many of which are broken into fine pieces, pass 
through the meshes of the wire sieve, and the pericarp, to 
which the lint adheres, is carried away and delivered into 
the fire-room, whei'e it is burned under the boilers, and 
affords a full supply of good fuel for the use of the estab- 
lishment. The clean seed is now carried by means of a 
system of elevators to the attic story, and then passes down 
into the crushers or rollers. These consist chiefly of two 
rollers revolving towards each other with unequal veloci- 
ty, so geared as to produce both a crushing and a tearing 
effect upon the seed. The meal, as the seed is now called, 
falls to the bin on the first floor, and is shoveled into the 
heater by the pressman's attendant. The heater is a short, 
double cylinder, so arranged as to heat the meal in the in- 
ner cylinder by steam, which circulates in the space be- 
tween the inner and the outer walls. Here the meal is 
heated until the water is converted into steam and 
escapes; the hot meal is then placed in wedge-shape 
bags, made of w^oolen duck; these are placed in hair 
books, which slide into the boxes of the press. As soon 
as the pressman has filled all the books, the pump is 
set to working, and the tremendous power of the hydraul- 
ic press soon forces out the liquid oil in warm, gushing 
streams. Seven minutes up, and the press returns ; the 
books are thrown out, the duck bags are stripped from the 
meal, now pressed into solid cakes, the cakes are set up in 
racks to dry, and thus the operation is completed. 

From the seed which w%s thrown into the huller, two 
merchantable articles arc produced at the press, crude 



184 COTTON CULTUEE. 

cotton seed oil, and cotton seed cake. After the oil lias 
cooled down to atmospheric temj^erature, and the floating 
impurities have separated from it and settled to the bottom 
of the tank, it is of a deep red color, and weiglis ahout 
seven and a half j)ounds to the gallon. This quality of 
oil found a market among oil refiners, who, usually by 
very simple processes, removed the mechanical impuri- 
ties and destroyed the coloring matter so as to produce an 
oil of a rich olive color, sweet and* agreeable to the taste. 
Much of this found its way to the tables of our first-class 
liotels and private families. As a substitute for olive oil, 
it has no equal, and when flavored by the addition of 
genuine olive it is much superior to any other adulteration 
yet produced. The chief consumers of the cotton seed 
oil, however, are the soap-makers. The oil was purchased 
by manufacturers in its crude state, and from it was pro- 
duced almost every grade of soap, from the cheajiest fam- 
ily, to pure white castile, and the finest and most highly 
perfumed toilet soaps. The Philadelphia manufacturers 
were among the first, and always the largest, consumers 
of cotton seed oil in soap-making. The single house of 
Thain & McKeone, afterwards Mclveone, Van Haagen & 
Co., consumed more than one-half of all the cotton seed 
oil that was used under its true name and in a pure state. 
These gentlemen discovered a very simple and cheap 
method of refining and bleaching the oil, and were thus 
enabled to produce a quality of cotton seed oil as clear and 
as limpid as pure watei\ Every grade of the oil was 
tlioroughly tested in this establishment, and efibrts were 
made to apply it to every possible use. At one time the 
proprietors hoped to make it one of the most profit- 
able articles of trade, but, after the most thorough and 
persistent trials, wherein it was used in making every qual- 
ity of soap and in adulterating all of the vegetable and 
some of the heavier animal <flls, tested as a lubricator, as 
an illuminator, as a paint oil mixed with linseed oil, and as 



COTTON CULTURE. 185 

a table oil, its use was finally abandoned even at the price 
of fifty cents a gallon. 

Practical soap makers say, the quantity of stearine 
contained in cotton seed oil is insufficient to take up the 
quantity of resin necessary to make a superior quality 
of fiimUy soap. In the manufacture of the finest qualities 
o4 fancy soajDS, it seemed to be a first-class stock. But, 
after the soaps of all grades were packed in boxes and 
allowed to stand a few months, a dark broAvn liquid, of 
a gummy nature, would ooze from the bars and cakes, 
and the soap would become soft. It, therefore, was un- 
salable, and hence the use of cotton seed oil was aban- 
doned. The ablest chemists in the country were employed 
to analyze the oil, and to discover, if possible, an agent 
that would destroy or neutralize this unmanageable ele- 
ment. These eftbrts of science were unsuccessful, though 
they were conducted under the patronage of one of the 
largest establishments in tlie country ; soap-makers, there- 
fore, concluded that a firm, durable soap could not be 
made from cotton seed oil. 

At about this same time a series of experiments made 
with great care, by Mr. A. W. Harrison, manufacturer of 
various gi-ades of soap, perfumery, extracts, ink and other 
articles, in Philadelphia, resulted much more favorably. 

Mr. Harrison says : 

"In the years 1860 and '61, I used large quantities of 
cotton-seed oil in the manufacture of family soap, and 
found it to possess peculiar and valuable qualities for that 
purpose. 

" Considerable skill and careful manipulation are required 
for the production of hard soap from this oil ; but, after 
many experiments, I sucbeeded in obtaining, uniformly 
and readily, a firm, solid, fine-grained soap, of a pale yel- 
low or cream color, and of the highest quality. It gives, 
without the use of resin or any other foreign substance, a 



186 COTTON CULTURE. 

thick, creamy lather, and possesses a detergent property 
superior to any other soap known. 

" In order to test its washing qualities under the most 
adverse circumstances, I prepared a piece of coarse bag- 
ging by saturating it with grease from the wheel of a dray, 
rubbing it well into the fabric and drying it. I then made 
a sti'ong, cold, salt brine, and in this liquid, with the cot- 
ton-seed oil soap, washed the bagging perfectly cleaih, 
with little labor, leaving the fabric uninjurcLl. I know of 
no soa^D that will endure so severe a test. 

" As a shaving soap it is unsurpassed for its rich and 
emollient lather. The oil used was clarified, of a pale 
straw color ; some lots were almost colorless. 

" My attempts to manufacture extemporaneous or " cold- 
made soap," invai'iably failed. A dark, gummy liquid, 
would exude from the soap after some weeks standing, 
which rendered it unsalable." 

Mr. Harrison believes refined cotton-seed oil, at sixty 
cents a gallon, to be tlie cheapest and most durable soaj) 
stock known to commerce. He continued to use it freely 
as long as it could be obtained in large quantities, and, up 
to the time of the beginning of war of the rebellion, was 
the second largest consumer in this country. 

Notwithstanding tlie variety of uses to which this oil 
was applied, and the quantities pui'chased by a few large 
dealers and manufacturers, the demand Avas never fully up 
to the supply ; and the oil pressers always worked against 
a dull market, and often were overstocked with oil, for 
Avhich they could find no purchasers. At this time about 
50,000 tons of seed were consumed by the oil mills, yield- 
ing, at the rate of 30 gallons per ton, about 1,500,000 gal 
Ions of crude oil. Estimating the cotton crop for such 
portions of the country as are, most accessible to cheap 
transportation at 3,000,000 bales, the seed available for 
oil-making would amount to 1,500,000 tons, yielding 
45,000,000 gallons of oil annually. The first and great 



COTTON CULTURE. 187 

necessity therefore is to find a more general use for this 
oil, in which the cotton region so greatly abounds. As 
an illuminator it is not equal to lard oil ; mixed with pe- 
troleum it makes a medium lubricator ; painters have used 
it either pure or mixed as a substitute for linseed oil ; oil 
dealers have mixed it with lard oil, with almond, pea-nut, 
cocoa-nut, and with olive oil ; but this surreptitious mode 
of treating it in trade gave it a bad name in commerce, 
and hence only small quantities found sale under the 
name of cotton-seed oil, except to a few soap-makers, who 
purchased it and used it in its true name and character. 

The refining process is simple, and, after a little practice, 
may be successfully conducted by any one possessed of ordi- 
nary skill. The agent employed to remove the impurities 
is a solution of the soda ash of commerce, having a 
strength of about 30 degrees. The oil is put into a large 
metal tank, supplied with steam pipes for heating, and 
with proper apparatus to keep tlie oil thoroughly agitated. 
The caustic solution and the oil, when mixed, should be 
at the temjjerature of the atmosphere in the factory, and 
about one gallon of the solution should be put into ten 
gallons of oil, mixed in small quantities, at intervals of a 
few minutes. The mixture should then be slowly heated 
up to 100 degrees, then allowed to cool. During the 
pouring in of the solution, and while the mixture is being 
heated, and until the temperature has gone down nearly 
to its natural state, the stirring apparatus should be kept 
in motion. The oil should then be left in the tank at 
least 2-4 hours, that the impurities may settle to' the bot- 
tom ; then, by a faucet inserted at a distance of several 
inches from the bottom, the refined oil may be drawn into 
a wooden tank placed in the basement, where it will sink 
to a still lower temperature, and deposit a purer sediment 
in the bottom of the tank. If the process has been con- 
ducted with care, the refined oil will be perfectly clear, 
and of a rich olive color. The price of this quality of oil 



188 COTTOJC CULTUEE. 

before the war rated at from sixty to seventy-five cents 
per gallon. 

The ground seed, from which the oil has been expressed, 
is known to commerce as " cotton-seed cake," and is con- 
sumed principally in feeding cattle. It is classed by gen- 
eral feeders with linseed cake, though chemists and scien- 
tific daii-ymen claim for it a superiority.' When fed to 
milch cows, it increases the quantity and improves the 
quality of the milk; it is a raj) id flesh former, and the 
manure of the stock yard where cotton seed meal is fed 
is of a very superior quality. 

The following observations were made by Professor 
Voelcker, of England, on the result of an analysis of sev- 
eral specimens of thin decorticated American cotton-seed 
cake: 

1st, — The proportion of oil in all the specimens is higher 
than in the best linseed cake, in which it is rarely more 
than 12 per cent., and 10 per cent, may be taken as aver- 
age. As a supplier of food, cotton-cake is therefore supe- 
rior to linseed-cake. 

2d. — The amount of oil in the several specimens difiers 
to the extent of 5^ per cent. — say from No. 7, 13.50, to 
No. 2, 19.19. 

3d. — ^Decorticated cake contains a veiy high and much 
larger percentage of flesh-forming matters than linseed- 
cake, and it is therefore proper to give to young stock and 
milch cows. The dung, also, is very valuable. 

4th. — In comparison with linseed, there is much less 
mucilage and other respiratory matter in cotton-cake. 
This is compensated by the larger amount of oil. 

5th, — The proportion of indigestible woody fibre in de- 
corticated cotton-cake is very small, and not larger than 
in the best linseed-cake, 

Gth, — And lastly, it may be observed that the ash of 



COTTON CULTURE. 189 

cotton-cake is rich in bony materials, and amounts to 
about tbe same quantity as is contained in other oily cakes. 

Dairymen and stock feeders, in this country, where 
corn and root vegetables are abundant and cheap, were 
slow to try experiments, and hence could not be induced 
to -use the cotton-seed cake. The great bulk of it Avas 
therefore ship^^ed to Liverpool, England, where it found 
ready sale at from, forty to forty-seven dollars per ton. 
Small quantities were fed in this country, and a few manu- 
facturers of fertilizers used it to mix with other ingredients. 

The cake can be ground into fine meal in a corn and cob 
mill, and, in this state, if mixed with cut straw or corn 
stalks and salted, makes a very superior feed for cattle. 
This is the proper mode of treating it. The farmers and 
planters in the South might thus, at small expense, convert 
the corn stalks and cobs of their wide fields into stacks 
and bins of forage, which, when made palatable to their 
animals, and enriched by the addition of cotton-seed meal 
and salt, would furnish ample supplies during the winter 
and spring months, and save vast sums of money now 
spent in the purchase of hay and oats. At a low estimate, the 
value of the cotton seed which hitherto has annually been 
destroyed in the Southern States would have amounted 
to not iess than 87,000,000. This crude material might 
be so transformed by simple processes as to greatly in- 
crease its value, and supply to the country, hitherto im- 
poverished by its destruction, just what it most needs. 
If the discoveries which Mr. A. W. Harrison claims to 
have made can become known and available to all soap- 
makers, then, at no distant time, there will be made from 
the cotton-seed the oils for ordinary uses, the soap for 
fiimily and toilet purposes ; the cake meal will supj^ly good 
forage for the plantation stock, and a superior fertilizer 
for the soil ; and the ashes of the hulls burned under the 
boilers, will yield a caustic solution, that can be used both 
in refining the oil and in the manufacture of soap. All 



190 COTTON CULTUEE. 

of these operations are exceedingly simple, and may be 
performed, under the direction of a skillful superintendent, 
by the ordinary laborers that are found in any of the 
villasres and cities in the country. 



LIST OF 



RURAL BOOKS 



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NO. 24.5 Broadway, NEW YORK. 



I ^' Any Book on lliis list Avill be forwarded, post-paid, to 
I any address in the United States, (except those Territories readied 
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Allen's (L. F.) Rural Architecture.. $1 50 
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Allen's (K. L.) Diseases of domestic 

Animals 1 00 

American Agricultural Annual, paper 50 

cloth 75 

American Horticultural Annual, paper 50 

" " cloth 75 

American Bird Fancier 30 

American Pomology 3 00 

American Rose Culturist 30 

American "Weeds and Useful Plants. 1 75 

Bement's Rabbit Fancier 30 

Bommer's Method of Making Manures 25 

Boussingault's Rural Economy 1 60 

Breck's New Book of Flowers 175 

Buist's Flower Garden Directory.... 1 50 
Buist's Family Kitchen Gardener... 1 00 
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Cobbett's American Gardener 75 

Cole's (S. W.) American Fruit Book 75 

Cole's Veterinarian 75 

Copeland's Country Life, 8vo, cloth. 5 00 
Cotton-Planter's Manual, (Turner).. 1 50 
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cloth.... GO 

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fuller's Strawberry Culturist 20 

Gregory on Squash Culture 30 



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ilerbert's Hints to Horse-Keepers... 1 75 

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Hoopes on Evergreens 

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Chemistry 1 50 

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Youatt and Martin on Cattle 1 50 

Youatt on the Hog 1 00 

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Breck's New Book of Flowers. 

BY JOSEPH BRECK, 

PE ACTIO AL IIORTICULTUEIST. 

BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED. 

This work, while preserving scientific accuracy, is written in a familiar 
style, and with the enthusiasm of a life-long lover of flowers. 

The lessons of a practical acquaintance with the subject are plainly 
given, and though the author is never dry, his teachings are full of 

PRACTICAL COMMON SENSE. 

ALL DEPAKTMENTS OF OUT-DOOR GAKDEWUMG 

are treated, and the work really condenses into one volume what is m 
many cases distributed through several treatises on Bulbs, Annuals, Roses, etc. 

BuSl>S. The cultivation of bulbs, whether indoors or in the open 
ground, is clearly described, and such instructions are given as will insure 
success with these favorite plants. 

Annuals. All the finer annuals are described, and the peculiar 
treatment necessary for each given in full. 

Herbaceous Perennials. This justly favorite class of plants 
is given here more at length than in any work with which we are acquainted. 

Bedding' Plants. The treatment of the popular kinds of bed- 
ding plants is given, together with that of Dahhas, Chrysanthemums, and 
such as usually fall under the head of florist's flowers. 

FIOAvering Shrubs. A separate section is devoted to the hardy 
flowering shrubs, including a very full chapter upon the Rose. 

We have no work which is so safe a guide to the novice in gardening, 
or that imparts the necessary information in a style so free from techni- 
calities. Not the least interesting part of the work is the author's personal 
experience, as he tells not only how he succeeded, but the mistakes ha 
committed. Thus far it is 

"THE BOOK OF FLOWERS." 
Sent post-paid. Price, $1.75. 

ORANGE JUDD & CO., 

245 liroadway. 



AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 
APPLES. 



Hy IDoct, JOHJV A. T\^A.Iir)E:R, 

PBEStDBKr OHIO POMOLOGICAL SOCIETT; VICE-PEESIDENT A-MKEIOAU POMOLOQIOAJ 

SOCIETY. 

393 II.a.llSTKATI©IVS. 
This volume has about 750 pages, the first 875 of which are de 
voted to tlie discussion of the general subjects of propagation, nur. 
Eery cuUure, selection and planting, cultivation of orchards, care of 
fruit, insects, and the like ; tlie remainder is occupied with descrip- 
tions of apples. With the richness of material at hand, the trouble 
was to decide what to leave out. It will be found that while the 
old and standard varieties are not neglected, the new and promising 
sorts, especially those of the South and "West, have prominence. 
A list of selections for different localities by eminent orchardists is 
a valuable portion of the volume, while the Analytical Index or 
Catalogue liaisonne, as the French would say, is the most extended 
American fruit list ever published, and gives evidence of a fearful 
amount of labor. 

CONTENTS. 

Cliaplcr 1— IIVTRODIICTORY. 

Ciiaplcr II HISTOtJY OF THE APPLE. 

Cliapter III— PROPAGATION. 

Buds and Cuttings— Grafting— Budding— The Nursery. 

Chapter ^V^— DWARFING. 

Cliapter V.— DISEASES. 

Chapter VI THE SITE FOR AN ORCHARD. 

Chapter VII.— PREPARATION OF SOIL. FOR AN ORCHARD. 

Chapter VIII SELECTION AND PLANTING. 

Chapter IX.— CULTURE, Etc. 

Chapter X PHILOSOPHY OF PRUNING. 

Chapter XI.— THINNING. 

Chapter XII — RIPENING AND PRESERVING FRUITS. 

Chapter XIH ami XIV.— INSECTS. 

Chapter XV CHARACTERS OF FRUITS AND THEIR 

VALUE— TERMS USED. 

Chapter X^^.- CLASSIFICATION. 

Necessity for— Basis of— Characters— Shape— Its Rego. 
larity— Flavor— Color— Their several Values, etc. De- 
scription of Apples. 

Chapter XVII— FRUIT LISTS— CATALOGUE AND INDEX OF 
FRUITS. 

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GARDENING FOR PROFIT, 

In the Market and Family Garden 
By Peter HEKDERSOisr. 

This is the first work on Market Gardening ever published in this 
countrj'. Its author is well known as a market gardener of eighteen 
years' successful experience. In this work he has recorded this 
experience, and given, without reservation, the methods necessary 
to the profitable culture of the commercial or 

It is a work for which there has long been a demand, and one 
which will commend itself, not only to those who grow vegetables 
for sale, but to the cultivator of the 

TAMILY GAKDEN, 

to whom it presents methods quite different from the old ones gen- 
erally practiced. It is an original and purely American work, and 
not made up, as books on gardening too often are, by quotations 
from foreign authors. 

Every thing is made perfectly plain, and the subject treated in all 
its details, from the selection of the soil to preparing the producta 
for market. 

CONTENTS. 

Men fitted for the Business of Gardening. 
The Amoiint of Capital Required, and 
"Working i'orce per Acre. 
Profits of Market Gardening. 
Iiocation, Situation, and Laying Out. 
Soils, Drainage, and Preparation. 
Manures, Implements. 
Uses and Management of Cold Frames. 
Formation and Management of Hot-beds. 
Forcing Pits or Green-houses, 
Seeds and Seed Raising. 
How, 'When, and Where to Sow Seeds. 
Transplanting, Insects. 
Packing of Vegetables for Shipping. 
Preservation of Vegetables in Winter. 
Vegetables, their Vai'ieties and Cultivation. 
In the last chapter, the most valuable kinds are described, and 
the culture proper to each is given in detail. 

Sent post-paid, price $1.50. 
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DRAINING FOR PROFIT, 

AND 

DRAINING FOR HEALTH. 

BY 

GEO. E. WARING, Jk., 

ENGINKEU OF THE DRAINAGE OF THE CENTRAL PARK, NEW-TOKK. 



" BVEKT KEPORTKD CASE OF FAILUKE IN DEAINAGB WHICH WE HAVE INVESTI- 
GATED, HAS KESOLVED ITSELF INTO IGNORANCE, BLUNDERING, BAD MANAGEMENT, 
OB BAD EXECUTION."— (?/.s60/'?lf. 

CQHTENTS: 

Chapter I.-1,AND TO BE DRAINED AIVD THE RKASONS 

WHY. 
Cliapter II.-HOW DRAIKS ACT, AND H01V THEY AFFECT 

THE soil.. 
Chapter III.-HOW TO GO TO IVORK TO LAY OUT A 

SYSTEM OF DRAINS. 
Chapter IV .-HOW TO MAKE THE DRAINS. 
Chapter V.— HOW^ TO TAKE CARE OF DRAINS AND 

DRAINED LANDS. 
Chapter VI.— WHAT DRAINING COSTS. 
Chapter VII.-^VIL,L IT PAY? 

Chapter VIII.-HOW^ TO MAKE DRAINING TILES. 
Chapter IX.-THE RECLAIMING OF SALT MARSHES. 
Chapter X.-MALARIAL DISEASES. 
Chapter XI.-HOUSE AND TO^VN DRAINAGE. 



Sent post-paid. Price $1.50. 



N E W - Y O R K : 

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THE 



I 

BY 

ANDEEY/ S. FULLEE. 



NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION. 



THE STANDARD WORK 

ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE HARDY GRAPE, 

AS IT NOT ONLY DISCUSSES PRINCIPLES, 

BUT 

ILLUSTEATES FRAGTICE. 

Elvery tliirii; is ixiacle perfectly plaiii^, and. its teaoh- 
inss inay be folio-wed. -upon. 

ONE VINE OR A VINEYARD 



The folloxving are soute of the topics that are treated: 

Growing New VAurKTiES prom Seed. 

Propagation by Single Bods or Eyes. 

Propagating Houses and their Manageuent fully DESCRiBEn. 

How to Grow. 

Cuttings in Open Air, and now to Make Layers. 

Grafting the Grape — A Simple and Successful Method. 

Hybridizing and Crossing — Mode of Operation. 

Soil and Situation — Planting and Cultivation. 

Pruning, Training, and Trellises — all the Systems Explained. 

Garden Culture — How to Grow Vines in a Door- Yard, 

Insects, Mildew, Sun-Scald, and other Troubles. 

Description of the Valuable and the Discarded Varieties. 



Sent post-paid. Price $1.50. 



Orange Judd «fe Co., 2-^5 .Broad^vcly. 



THE 



SMALL FRUIT CULTURIST. 



ANDREW S. FULLER. 
Beautifully Illustrated, 

We have heretofore had no work especially devoted to small 
fruits, and certainly no treatises anywhere that give the information 
contained in this. It is to the advantage of special works that the 
author can say all that he has to say on any subject, and not bo 
restricted as to space, as he must be in tliose works that cover the 
culture of all fruits — great and small. 

This book covers the whole ground of Propagating Small Fruits, 
their Culture, Varieties, Packing for Market, etc. "While very full on 
the other fruits, the Currants and Raspberries have been more care- 
fully elaborated than ever before, and in this important part of his 
book, the author has had the invaluable counsel of Charles Downing. 
The chapter on gathering and packing the fruit is a valuable one, 
and in it are figured all the baskets and boxes now in common use. 
The book is very finely and thoroughly illustrated, and makes an 
admirable companion to the Grape Culturist, by the same author. 



/ 



COIVTEIVTS: 



Chap. I. Barberry. 
Chap. II. Strawberry. 
Chap. III. Raspberry. 
Chap. IV. Blackberry. 
Chap. V. Dwarf Cherry. 
Chap. VI. Currant. 



Chap. VII. Gooseberry. 
Chap. VIII. Cornelian Cherry. 
Chap. IX. Cranberry. 
Chap. X. Huckleberry. 
Chap. XL Sheperdia. 
Chap. .XII. Preparation fop, 

GATHERING FrUIT. 



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ORANGE JTIDD & CO., 245 Broadway, New- York, 



The Miniature Fruit Garden; 



OK, 

THE CULTURE OF PYRAMIDAL AND BUSH FRUIT TREES. 

BY THOMAS EIVERS. 

ILLUSTRATED. 

Mn. Rivers is one of the oldest and best known of the English nursery, 
men and orchardists. The popularity that his work has attained in Eng- 
land is shown by the fact that our reprint is from the Thirteenth London 
Edition. This treatise is mainly devoted to 

D^varf Apples asid Pears. 

Nothing is more gratifying than the cultivation of dwarf fruit trees, and 
this work tells how to do it successfully. These miniature trees are beauti- 
ful ornaments, besides being useful in giving abundant crops of fruit ; they 
can be grown in 

Small Gardeiss and City Yard§, 

and be removed without injury, almost as readily as a piece of furniture. 
The work also gives the manner of training upon walls and trellises. 

Root Pruning 

is fully explained, and various methods of protection from frosts are given. 

DAvarf Clierrics and Plums 

are treated of as are other dwarf trees. Directions are also given for 
growing 

Figs and Filberts. 

While written for the climate of England, its suggestions are valuable 
evcrywtiere, and no one who grows dwarf trees should be without this little '- 
work, in which is condensed the whole practice of the author, and which, i 
like all his writings, bears the marks of long experience in the practice of \^ 
fruit growing. \ 

BENT POST PAID. PRICE, $1. 

ORANGE JUDD &. CO., 245 Broadway. 



COPELAND'S COUNTRY LIFE. 

A COI¥iPE^iDBUM 

OP 

AgricnltLiral and Horticnltural 

PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE. 

Beautifully Illustrated. 

It contams Descriptions, Hints, Suggestions, and Details of great value to 
every one interested in Fruit, Flowers, Vegetables, or Farm Crops. It con- 
tains 926 larc/e Octavo Pages, and 250 Enr/ravinris. Describing and Il- 
lustrating nearly the whole range of topics of interest to the FARMER, the 
GARDENER, the FRUIT CULTURIST, and the AMATEUR. 

It is adapted not only to those owning large and Elegant Estates, but con- 
tains directions for the best arrangement of the smallest Plots, down to the 
CHij Yard, the Roof or Window Garden, or the simple Flower Stand. It 
also gives an abstract of the Principles, Construction, and Management of 
Aquariums. Among numerous other matters it treats of 

Oraitlingr, Giving best methods, estimates of cost, trenches, tiles, etc., 
thus enabling almost any one properly to perform this important work. 

Cattle are carefully noticed with reference to the special merits of dif- 
ferent breeds for dairying or fattening. 

SBlCCp Managcnieilt, including Breeding, Feeding, Prices, Profits, 
etc., receives attention, and a very full treatise on the Merinos is given. 

Grape Cultuve occupies a large space, embracing the opinions of 
men in all parts of the country, as to best sorts, planting, training, diseases, 
and goneral management for home use or marketing. 

Full I^ists of Ornamental Trees and Shrubs, Fruits, Flowers, Green 
and Hot-house Plants, etc., are given, with directions for management each 
month in the year. 

The Kitclieil CJardeil receives particular attention, with lefor- 
ffnce to the best way to grow and pi'eserve each kind of Vegetable. 

/ In short, as its name indicates, the book treats of almost every subject thai 
needs co^isideration by those living in the country, or having any thing to do 
with the cultivation of the soil. 

Sent I=^ost-X^aici- . . I^i-ice, S3.00. 

N E TV-Y O R K : 

Oraiig-e Jii<i<:l «& Co., S4^ Bi-oatl^vr a; -■. 



MY VINEYARD AT LAKEVIEW; 

OR, 

SUOOESSFUL GEAPE CULTURE. 

BY A WESTEE2T GRAPE GROWER. 

ILLUSTRATED. 

To any one who wishes to grow grapes, whether a single vine or a yine- 
yard, this book is full of valuable teachings. The author gives not only hia 
success, but, what is of quite as much importance, his failure. It tells just 
what the beginner in grape culture wishes to know, with the charm that 
always attends the relation of personal experience. 

It is especially valuable as giving an account of the processes actually 
followed in 

CELEBRATED GRAPE REGIONS 

in Western New- York and on the shores and islands of Lake Erie. 

This book is noticed by a writer in the Horticulturist for August last as 
follows : " Two works very different in character and value have just been 
published, and seem to demand a passing notice. The better and less pre- 
tentious of the two is ' Mr Vineyard at Lakeview,' a charming little book 
that professes to give the actual experience of a western grape grower, de- 
tailing not only his successes, but his blunders and failures. It is written 
in a pleasant style, without any attempt at display, and contains much ad- 
vice that will prove useful to a beginner — the more useful because derived 
from the experience of a man who had no leisure for fanciful experiments, 
but has been obliged to make his vineyard support himself and his family." 



Written in a simple and attractive style, and relating the experience of one who fe/t 
kh way along into the successful cultivation of a vineyard in Ohio. — Mass. Plcughman. 

It is the experience of a practical grape grower, and 7iot the theory of an experi- 
mentei-. — Bath Daily Sentinel and Tinus. 

It has no superior as an attractive narrative of country life. — Hartford Daily Post. 

Many books have been written on the grape, but this is the only work that gives an 
account of grape growing as actually practiced at the successful vineyards in the grnpe 
region of the West, and will be welcomed by a large class of readers. — New-Bedfwi 
Standard. 

This little volume contains, in an attractive form, and in clear and concise language', 
just the information needed to enable any one to become thoroughly posted up in thisi 
delightful and profitable branch of horticulture. — Vermont Farmer. \ 

Just the manual for a beginner, by one who says " he is well rewarded in the succeBB 
attained." Adding, "It might have been reached in half the time, had I possessed th« 
knowledge imparted to the reader of this book.' • -Boston Cultivator. 

Sent Posf-jmid Price, $1.50. 
ORANGE JUDD & CO., 245 Broadway, New-York. 



1 



Downing's Landscape Gardening and Rural 
Ai^cMtectoe. 

Price, $G.50. 

The most complete and valuable -vrorlc ever issued on Landscape Gardening In 
Korth- America, for the Improvement of Country Kesidences; containing full Dircc- 
llDiis for ever}' thins connected with LajMnj; out and adorning the Kural Home, the 
Grounds, the Gardens, the Buildings, the Trees and Plants, etc., with principles of 
taste so stated as to adapt the work to all classes. Splendidly Illustrated with many 
Steel and fine Wood Engravings. By the late A. J. Downing. New Edition, En- 
larged, Newly Illustrated and Revised, with Supplement, by Hbney Wisthkop's.»B- 
CEXT. Octavo, 53-1 pp. E.\tra cloth, gilt, beveled boards. 

This Edition contains a Splendid neic porlrait on Steel, of Mr. Downijjq. 

Herberf s Hints to Horse-Keepers, - - - {New Edition.) 

Pi-ico, $1.75. 

Tliis Is the best practical work on the Horse, prepared in this country. A Coiiplktk 
Manuai, for Horsemen, embracing: How to Breed a Horse; How to Buy a Horse; 
How to Break a Horse; How to Use a Horse; How to Feed a Horse; How to Physic a 
Horse (Allopathy or Homoeopathy) ; How to Groom a Horse ; How to Drive a Horse; 
How to Piide a Horse, etc., and Chapters on Mules and Ponies, etc. By the late 
Henky William Hekbekt (Frank Forrester). Beautifully Illustrated tliroaghout. 
Cloth, 12mo., 425 pp. 

13e:es. 
Quiflby's Mysteries of Bec-Reepiiig Explained. 

Price, $1.50. 

^"cpiiiUj tcrltten throughout, containing the results of thlrty-flve years of successful 
exprjricncc, with./"»H, plain, ami practical Directions for all details of Bee Culture; 
Inc iuding also a Description and Manner of Using the Movable Comb and Box Hiveg, 
wiUi the most approved modes of Propagating and Treating the Italian Bee, etc., etc., 
W.itU numerous Illustrations. By M. Quincv, Practical BecKccpcr. 

NEW-YOrJv : 

PUBLISHED BY 

ORANGE JUDD & 




THE AMERICAISr 

AgrliiMnral 4iinal 



FOR 1368. 



J^ Y'ear-IBook 

"Wanted by Evepybody- 

This volume is now ready, and contains mucli of interest to 
every agriculturist. Besides the general record of agricultural 
progress, it has a valuable article on 

Factory ©airy Practice, 

By Gardner B. Weeks, Esq., Secretary of the American Dairy- 
men's Association, in which he discusses the reasons for the best 
[)ractice and the most approved apparatus, buildings, etc., fully il- 
lustrated, and is equally interesting to the practical dairyman and 
to the novice. 

ScAvers and Eartli-Closels 

In their relations to Agriculture, by Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr. 
^Vintcr Wheat, 

Describing, with engravings, new and valuable varietie,s by Joseph 
Harris and John Johnston ; an article upon 

Scythes and Cradles, 

By John W. Douglas, (fully illustrated ;) also articles on Horse- 
Breaking and on Bitting Colts, by Sam'l P. Headly, Esq., (il- 
lustrated ;) on Recent Progress in Agricultural Science, by Pxof 
S. W. Johnson ; on Commercial Fertilizers, Veterinary Medicine 
and Jurisprudence, Progress of Invention Affecting Agricultui'e, 
Valuable Tables for Farmers and others, etc. 

It is intended that the work shall be practical, excellent in thel 
beauty of its illustrations, and in its adaptation to the wants of' 
American Farmers, superior to anything of the kind heretofore 
published. 

In its general features it is like the Agricultural Annual for 1837, 
containing an Almanac and Calendar, and there will be added a 
list of dealers in Agricultural- Implements, Seeds, etc. Sent post- 
paid. Price, fancy paper covers, 50 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts. 

OEANGE JITDD & CO., 

245 Broadway, New-York. 



THE AMEEIOAE" 



FOR 1868. 



.A. ITear-Book 

FOR 13¥"KRY HOmK. 

The second number of this serial is now ready. It contains a 
popular record of horticultural progress during the past year, 
besides valuable articles from 

EMINENT HORTICULTURISTS. 

Among those wlio contributed to its pages are 



Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, 
Peter Henderson, 
Thomas Meehan, 
josiah hooi'es, 
Wm. S. Carpenter, 
George W. Campbell, 
Doctor Van Keitren, 



Doctor John A. Warder, 
S. B. Parsons, 
Jas. J. H. Gregory, 
George Such, 
Andrew S. Fuller, 
John Saul, 
James Vick, 



and other well-known pomological and fioricultural writers. 

'The engravings, which have been prepared expressly for the 
work, are numerous, and make it the 

MOST BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED 

work of its kind ever published in this or any other country. It 
contains Tables, Lists of Nurserymen, Seedsmen, and Florists, and 
other useful matters of reference. Sent post-paid. Price, fancy 
paper covers, 50 cts ; cloth, 75 cts. 

ORANGE JUDD & CO., 

245 Broadway, New-York. 



4<=^ -#=^4" 

[Established in 1842.] 

A Good, Cheap, and very Valuable Paper for 
Every Man, Woman and Child, 

I N C I T Y, ¥ I L L A G E and COUNTRY, 

AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 

FOR THE 

FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD, 

Including a Special Department of interesting and 

fnstructive Reading for CI^ILOREI^ and YOUTH. 

The Agriculturist Is a largo periodical of Tldrty-tico pagt^, quarto, not octavo, 
beautifully printed, and filled with plain, practical, reliable, original matter, includ- 
lug hundreds of beautiful and instructive digi-avliigs In every annual volume. 

It contains each month a Calendar of Operations to be performed on the Farm, 
in the OrcUai-il and Garden, in and around the B^vcUiiig, €tc. 

The thousands of hints and suggestions given in every volume are prepared by prac- 
tical, intelligent -worlciiig men, who know what they talk and write about. The 
articles are thoroughly edited, and every way reliable. 

The Houseliol;! Department Is valuable to every Housekeeper, affording 
very many useful hints and directions calculated to lighten and facilitate in-door work. 

The Department for Cliiltlren anil Yontli, is prepared with special care 
not only to amuse, but also to inculcate knowledge and sound moral principles. 

Terms.— The circulation of the American Agriculturist, (about 150,000) 's so 

large that It can be furnished at the low price of $1.50 a year ; four copies, one yea r, for 
$5; ten copies, one year, for $12; twenty or more copies, one year. $1 each; 6lh\?le 
copies, 15 ceuts each. An extra copy to the one furnishing a club of ten or twenty. 

ORANGE JTJDD & CO., 

Fiililisliers & Proprietors^ . . 
'f No. 245 Broadway, New- York City/ff \ 



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